IS IT SEIF?:

US firm purchases Tamoil for €4bn: Colony Capital, the Los Angeles-based private equity firm, fights off the rival Carlyle Group in the race for the Libyan oil refiner (Steve Hawkes and agencies, 6/06/07, Times Online)

An American private equity group led by the billionaire Thomas Barrack has won the €4 billion (£2.6 billion) auction for Tamoil, the Libyan oil refiner run by the son of Colonel Gaddafi.

The Los Angeles-based Colony Capital fought off competition from its US private equity rival Carlyle Group and Repsol, the Spanish oil group, for the business.

The Libyan Government will retain a 35 per cent stake.

Libya, the country with the biggest oil reserves in Africa, decided to sell Tamoil two years ago when Seif al-Islam, Colonel Gaddafi’s son, said that managing the firm was “a burden”.

Ideally the king should be a reformer, but a sufficiently influential prince'll do.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 9, 2007 9:12 AM