BUSINESS TICKER: INTERNATIONAL: EUROPE: REFINING

RefiningKlesch & Co. to invest in $8-billion Libyan project

Reuters

February 20, 2008

London-based private equity firm Klesch & Company Ltd. said yesterday it will invest in an $8-billion (U.S.) project in Libya to build a 300,000 barrels per day oil refinery and a 725,000 tonne per year aluminum smelter. Chairman Gary Klesch said he could not disclose where the complex would be built, but that Libya would make an announcement "in due course." The industrial complex is due to be completed by 2011. Klesch's investment illustrates private equity's rising interest in emerging markets, which often offer private equity groups higher growth than mature markets and buyout firms can often find local lenders willing to provide more favourable financing than risk-averse Western banks.