Joined: 05 Oct 2005
Posts: 315
|
By Emiko Terazono
Vincent Tchenguiz, the property tycoon, has signed a $20m (£9.8m) deal with Colonel Muammer Gadaffi’s government which could help foreign defence and aerospace groups fulfil investment obligations taken on to secure multi-billion pound deals with Libya. Mr Tchenguiz’s Consensus Business Group is investing in a research centre with Imperial Innovations, the Aim-listed commercial arm of Imperial College, along with the Libyan government’s Technical Studies Research Centre. Defence and aerospace manufacturers which invest in the venture will obtain credits which will cancel out the “offset” obligations assumed in trade deals with the country. Libya, like many governments, require foreign contractors to invest back in the country in exchange for the large payments for military or civil aerospace deals. But many foreign contractors find fulfilling these “offset” or “countertrade” obligations difficult. This Libyan initiative is the latest in attempts by a handful of companies including Consensus to act as brokers and facilitators of offset projects for international contractors. |
|
