Under this strategy, LAP GreenN would undergo a wholesale restructuring. It would slim down its operations by closing its Dubai office, and focus on the key markets of Uganda and the Sudan. The ultimate objective: to bring LAP GreenN’s rampant expenditure under control and make the company profitable once more. A sensible plan, and one which illustrates the pragmatism that the LIA has shown in recent months – particularly with its recent call for its assets to remain frozen until a new unity government is in place.
This plan could have been a turning point for LAP GreenN. But instead, LAP GreenN decided to completely ignore it. Ahmed Kashadah and Ali Hibri, Chairman of LAIP in Tripoli, refused to carry out the LIA board’s instructions. Furthermore Wafic Shater refused access to the LIA’s forensic auditors. These auditors had been instructed by the LIA to investigate LAP GreenN’s annual expenses, which were running between US$17-25 million. And this was for an office with no more than ten employees!
So what was the result of LAP GreenN’s defiance of the LIA’s instructions? An estimated US$1.5 billion worth of funds ploughed into the company, with very little to show for it.
The LIA continued steadfastly in its efforts to save the company. It also continued its wider examination of over 550 companies forming part of its investment portfolio, categorising these companies into two buckets – one for immediate liquidation and the other for a managed exit and sale. However all these efforts had to be put on hold when the country was struck by civil war and split into two governments based in Tripoli and Tobruk.
LAP GreenN’s ill-fated restructuring
The most recent setback for LAP GreenN came last August. A breakaway group based in Malta and fraudulently claiming to represent the Libyan Post, Telecommunication and Information Technology Company (LPTIC) announced a “strategic consolidation” which included the supposed acquisition of LAP GreenN by LPTIC.