Libya using UK fund as training ground

The Libyan Government is backing a new London hedge fund with hundreds of millions of dollars, as the Arab state seeks to diversify its economy away from oil and train a generation of investment professionals in the ways of the financial markets.

FM Capital Partners has been hiring staff at its offices in Knightsbridge, has applied for registration with the Financial Services Authority and plans to launch later in the year.

The hedge fund will be run by the former Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns trader Frederic Marino, with a board that includes luminaries from Libyan diplomacy and its sovereign wealth funds.

As well as managing money on behalf of funds linked to the Libyan Government, it will also offer a training scheme for professionals from the north African state's nascent finance industry and sovereign wealth funds.

"What we are developing is not just an investment fund," Marino said.

"This is also about the transfer of investment technology and creating a generation of people who, in four or five years, will have a good level of technical international financial knowledge."

Companies House documents show FM Capital was quietly established almost a year ago.

The fund's size will be determined only in the coming weeks, depending on commitments from different sub-funds under the Libyan Government's control.

- INDEPENDENT