Bermuda Firm Won Major Gaddafi Contracts
A Bermuda registered firm headed by a former Downing Street adviser to UK Prime Ministers Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher and John Major faces an uncertain future in Libya where it had signed a string of lucrative contracts with the toppled Gaddafi regime.
Magna Holdings had been charged with building hotels and office blocks in Tripoli and was poised to win valuable contracts developing tourism along Libya’s Mediterranean coast prior to the outbreak of the anti-Gaddafi insurrection earlier this year.
Magna was also constructing the “Gaddafi Tower”, a 50-storey skyscraper in Tripoli, as one of a number of contracts worth £175 million, the UK “Daily Telegraph” has reported.
Magna Holdings, which is registered in Hamilton, is chaired by Lord Powell, the brother of Jonathan Powell, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair’s chief of staff. Lord Powell, a former aide to Baroness Thatcher and John Major, has also advised Mr. Blair.
With the death of longtime Libyan strongman Moamar Gaddafi at the hands of rebels this week, British Cabinet Ministers have suggested the best way for the UK to capitalise on its support for the insurgents is for British companies to seek business in the new Libya.
Since the UK played a central role in toppling the hated regime, British companies should seek a central role in the reconstruction of Libya too.
But Bermuda-based, British-owned Magna’s close ties to the Gaddafi regime may not endear the firm to the Interim Transitional National Council which is ruling the North African country ahead of elections scheduled for 2012.
One of Mr. Blair’s final acts as prime minister was to sign a controversial co-operation agreement with Col. Gaddafi [the two men are pictured together at top] that opened trade links for British firms.
Libya had long been isolated by the international community following Col. Gaddafi’s involvement in a number of high-profile terrorist outrages in the 1980s and ’90s — including the bombing of a Pan Am jetliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.
But following the al-Qaeda 9/11 attacks on the US in 2001, relations warmed between the West and the former pariah state.
Col. Gaddafi, who dealt harshly with Islamic jihadists in Libya, was in fact the first world leader to ask for an Interpol arrest warrant for Osama bin-Laden after the Saudi terror mastermind organised the assassinations of two German intelligence agents in Tripoli in the 1990s.
The alliance of expediency between Libya and the West during George W. Bush’s “War On Terror” led to the country being readmitted to the international economic and diplomatic fold.
When Tony Blair announced the resumption of financial and trade links between the UK and Libya, it was initially believed oil companies would be the main beneficiaries.
However, Magna Holdings was selected as one of the main players in the development of Libya’s tourism industry.
Although tourism was in its infancy when the revolution to oust Gaddafi began,estimates suggest that it could develop into a multi-billion-pound industry.
Magna Holdings had won contracts for three projects in Tripoli. It redeveloped the five-star Al Wadden hotel, which is run by Intercontinental, and was constructing a second £40 million hotel for the group in the capital when the Libyan civil war began.
The third and most controversial project the firm is involved in is the £121 million Gaddafi Tower, a 50-storey development consisting of offices, restaurants and shops. It was jointly owned by Magna Holdings and the Watasemo Organisation for Charity Work, which was run by Ayesha Gaddafi, the ousted strongman’s daughter.
Magna was also understood to be bidding for contracts to develop a tourism infrastructure along the Libyan coast.
The company does not publish public accounts and many of its shareholders are front companies or trusts that are registered in other off-shore financial centres.
Magna Holdings was formed in Bermuda in June, 2004 — three months after Mr. Blair normalised relations between the UK and Libya. It signed its first deal in Libya shortly after.
A spokesman for Magna Holdings denied that Mr. Blair or Mr. Powell had been involved in helping to secure contracts from the firm. “There is no involvement at all,” he told “The Daily Telegraph”
