Post-Gaddafi Libya bourse resumes trading with 10 shares

Tripoli Libya's stock market reopened Thursday for the first time since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi with trading in 10 companies valued at $3.1 billion (Dh11.38 billion), its general manager said. "We open trading in 10 companies with a capital value of 3.9 billion Libyan dinars," Ahmad Karoud said ahead of the opening ceremony which drew government officials and potential buyers. It is a modest but significant step for the North African nation which is seeking to relaunch its economy after decades of dictatorship that stifled private companies and subjected banks to the whims of Kadhafi and his clan. The bourse's chairman said trading would soon open to foreign investors. Foreign investors will be able to own up to 10 per cent of shares," Mohammad Fakroun said, adding that the mechanics of that would be ironed out by the central bank very soon. Most of the shares being traded represent the financial sector, including private banks and insurance firms, although a cement company also made the cut in the country which places reconstruction high on its agenda. An Islamic fund and a real estate company would start trading in June, Karoud added, with oil companies and telecommunications giants Al Madar and Libyana next in line. "Before February 17 there was no rule of law," Karoud said in reference to the start date of the revolt that plunged the country into a civil conflict that ended with the toppling and killing of Gaddafi in October. The Mediterranean state, he said, hopes to become the main financial link between Europe and the rest of Africa. Its stock market was modelled on Abu Dhabi's and has ambitions of expanding, he added. "We still don't have a government but we have the capacity and infrastructure necessary to become the financial hub of North Africa," he said, predicting a new chapter of foreign investment, innovation and development. Karoud said a pro-Gaddafi brigade seized the former stock market building in June last year simply because it took a fancy to its location. Employees had to evacuate documents and backups in their private cars, he said.