Ahmed Kashadah, Managing Director of the Libya Africa Investment Portfolio (LAIP/LAP), was giving a keynote speech yesterday at the Libyan British Business Council’s (LBBC) annual luncheon held at the House of Lords. The event was attended by about ninety leading members and guests of the LBBC interested in Libyan business affairs, including the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Chris Cardona, the Maltese Minister for Economy, Tonio Casapinta, vice president of the Maltese Chamber of Commerce, PWC, AECOM, Mott MacDonald, KBR, Amec Foster Wheeler, BACB, ABC Bank, Aggreko etc.
‘‘What makes LAIP different is the fact that, in addition to the continued safe-guarding of its assets, it has been very active post-revolution in its investment strategy. Key decisions continued to be made in areas including restructuring, mergers and acquisitions and the execution of existing strategies; all of these decisions were made during the ongoing instability Libya has faced, and have been proven to be valuable investment decisions that have increased wealth and ensured the fund’s survival’’, Mr. Kashadah explained.
‘‘The diversification of the LAIP portfolio and the strategic turnaround achieved over the past few years has taken LAIP from one of the LIA’s lowest-performing subsidiaries, to one of its highest. Let me give you two examples of the strategies that have proven to be effective.
‘‘First is the Oil Libya Holding where decisions related to changes in management and mergers and acquisitions have helped the company to become one of the leading downstream companies in the African continent’’.
‘‘Over the years, Oil Libya became a major player in Africa employing over 1,500 diverse employees, generating an estimate of 20,000 indirect jobs in the countries of operations. It is visited by up to 250,000 customers per day. It has over 1,000 service stations, eight blending plants, over 60 fuel terminals, and a presence in over 50 airports across Africa’’.
‘‘Another excellent example of the turnaround capacity of LAIP and the adherence to its diversification mandate is well illustrated by the success of the company’s investment in a satellite company’’.
‘‘RSQ is a satellite business of LAIP that went through a major restructuring; it started providing services outside the Libyan market to ensure its external survival. It proved to be successful in this, and is now looking into providing its services for Libya’s rural areas which it believes are a promising market’’.
‘‘The company’s survival was under threat as it was struggling to meet its liabilities due to its over-reliance on the Libyan market; we have successfully supported the company with our partners to develop a new business plan with a change of management. The company is now operating and benefiting from its African origin in providing its services in much wider markets in association with international brand names’’. He explained.
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