Published: January 31, 2011
Abu Dhabi investor targets stock market.
Invest AD, an Abu Dhabi government-owned investment company, plans to benefit from Libya’s economic growth by launching a fund to invest in the country’s US$2.2bn stock exchange.
The financial details of the fund have not been disclosed but it will buy shares in businesses listing on the exchange and make pre-IPO investments in companies.
Invest AD’s chief executive, Nazem Fawwaz Al Kudsi, said Libya is “reaping the rewards” of opening its economy. “We’re glad to be there at an early stage of this process and are very much long-term investors.”
Libya produces 1.8mn barrels of oil a day and has other fast-growing industries, such as petrochemical, iron and steel and manufacturing. The IMF predicts that its GDP will grow by more than 7% annually in the next four years with government spending on infrastructure also likely to benefit the wider economy.
This is the latest frontier market fund Invest AD has launched, with Iraq another country that it is also targeting. “We are very bullish on frontier markets, which have lagged the global markets recovery in the last couple of years, but display some of the highest rates of economic growth in the world,” said Mohammed Al Hashemi, head of Invest AD Asset Management.