Follow the money, runs the refrain – and Italy has taken it to heart: its companies are increasingly turning to Libya, Italy’s oil-rich former colony, for funding.
Libya already owns stakes in Fiat, Juventus, Eni and UniCredit. Now, in a fund run with Mediobanca, the investment bank at the heart of corporate Italy, it plans to buy more, especially distressed assets. With $65bn in Tripoli’s coffers, Rome is unsurprisingly courting Libya’s involvement, which follows a “friendship pact” Silvio Berlusconi, prime minister, signed last year.
Others have fluffed similar attempts to turn the tables on their former colonial masters. Think of the drubbing India’s Tata Group suffered in the UK after buying Corus and Jaguar Land Rover at the top of the market. Libya, while apparently a neophyte in international finance, is more astutely shopping at the bottom.
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