Libya is in talks to invest in five or six Italian companies, with some of those deals ”more important” than that of its recent purchase of a nearly 5% stake in UniCredit, Libya’s ambassador to Italy told Reuters.
He declined to name the companies involved, but said they included both private and publicly traded companies.
Denying a news report last week that Libya had decided to suspend investments in Italy, he said Libyan entities continued to actively look for opportunities to invest, spurred by enough funds and cash to do so.
”In these days, we are in talks on new opportunities that are very important,” Ambassador Hafed Gaddur told Reuters in an interview at the Libyan embassy in Italy.
”I believe they will conclude soon. They are more important than UniCredit, for us. There are five to six operations under way, with both public and private companies.”
He said the determining factor for Libya was not control of the company, but whether the prospective investment stood to generate profits over the long term.
”We want to invest in Italy. Certainly, what counts is that in the end there are profits,” he said. ”We won’t invest in just any project, there must be an [avenue] of profits behind the investment, for both private and public companies.”
He said Libya, which could invest in Italy through its sovereign wealth fund or other entities, was focused on acquiring financial stakes for long-term returns.
”We don’t have a strategy to control Italian companies,” he said. ”We want stakes in companies that are traded on the market, and those that are private. All for the long term.”
He said Libya was particularly interested in companies whose share prices had been battered by market turmoil, but whose profits and future plans remained stable.
”This is exactly the time to invest for the long term, with the shares of these companies that have lost a bit of their value,” he said, adding that Libya favoured buying shares directly in the market without any intermediaries.
He declined to comment on whether Libya was still in talks to buy a stake in Telecom Italia, but said Libya’s focus was on investing in healthy companies without major debt problems.
Italy’s largest phone company has been weighed under €37-billion of debt and is working to rein in costs. Shares of the company were down 3,5% in afternoon trade.
”We are always looking to start new initiatives that are healthy,” he said. ”If they have problems with debt, then we won’t enter. The companies have to have a project that convinces us.”
Gaddur also said Libya, which already holds 4,6% of UniCredit, did not plan to increase its stake beyond 5%. – Reuters