Libya reports $900m boost to SWF assets

• Rise occurs during first quarter
• Fund is under UN sanctions
• Three diversified portfolios

An increase in the value of equity holdings and interest on deposits boosted the assets of Libya’s sovereign wealth fund (SWF) by more than $900 million in the first quarter of 2026.

The assets held by the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), which was created in 2006, swelled to $51.8 billion at the end of March from $50.9 billion at the end of 2025, the LIA said in a post on Facebook this week.

The value of the equity portfolio rose nearly $600 million and realised returns from dividends and interest on time deposits were $308 million, the LIA said.

The LIA has been under UN sanctions since 2011 when the international community sought to prevent the regime of Muammar Gaddafi from gaining access to its funds.

In September of that year, after the Gaddafi regime collapsed, the UN security council refined the sanctions, maintaining a freeze on the assets.

The LIA has subsequently had a chequered history, including being the subject of court cases in the UK, with four parties each claiming to be chairman.

At the end of 2019, Deloitte, the consultants who had been brought in to provide an independent valuation, said that total assets were worth $68 billion.

In its latest post, the LIA said that assets comprise three diversified investment portfolios, including a time deposit valued at $25.2 billion with returns of $234.3 million, equities valued at $13.5 billion with returns of $72.9 million and a $3.9 billion investment fund portfolio with returns of $0.56 million.

The LIA also holds uninvested cash balances of $9.2 billion, separate from total directly managed financial assets, it said, adding that these balances arose from the maturity of several instruments and securities, which led to liquidation and conversion into restricted cash under Western freezing measures.

“The Authority is currently working to reinvest these funds in low-risk instruments. Applications have been submitted to the local authorities in the countries where the frozen funds are located for licenses to reinvest around $5 billion,” the LIA said.

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The value of indirect assets managed through subsidiaries is $28 billion and the LIA is working to evaluate the assets of subsidiaries for 2025, with the aim of updating fair values and including them in its consolidated statements, the LIA said.

Analysts said that the fall in the value of the fund since the 2019 valuation was down to a depreciation in the Libyan currency.

“I believe that Libya’s assets were much bigger but it seems they have been revised down following the devaluation of the Libyan dinar against the US dollar as the fund is believed to be in control of large dinar assets,” said Jamal Banoun, manager of the Riyadh-based SMS economic consultancy centre.