In the shadow of the US embassy in London’s leafy Mayfair district is a smart Georgian townhouse with a discreet brass nameplate: Dalia Advisory Limited. This is the London office of the Libyan Investment Authority at Upper Brook Street, a well-heeled parade that is home to some of the world’s most powerful hedge funds and secretive financiers.
Inside Number 11, the walls are bare, the rooms spartan and the carpets newly laid. For months, the office has stood empty. Barely a year ago, however, it was a staging post for the billions of dollars in investments Libya’s cash-rich wealth fund was making around the world.
When Muammer Gaddafi’s second son and heir apparent, Seif al-Islam, backed the establishment of the $65bn LIA in January 2007 it quickly became a high-profile vehicle for the regime’s efforts to re-engage with the global economy. “If you wanted to invest in the past, no one would take your calls. Now bankers fly on their private jets to see us,” Mohammed Layas, chairman of the LIA, said at the time.
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