The UK hedge fund training the Libyan financial services professionals of tomorrow

With current Libyan regime looking increasingly unsteady, more scrutiny is being paid to the international firms who have backing from the country's sovereign wealth fund, the Libya Investment Authority (LIA).

The $70bn SWF has, after all, been an increasingly ambitious international investor, holding stakes in Fiat, Unicredit, FT-owner Pearson and even Juventus football club. Many of these companies will be keeping a nervous eye on developments in Libya.

But it's also worth revisiting the case of one London hedge fund - FM Capital Partners run by ex-Merrill, Bear Stearns and Rabo Securities trader Frederic Marino - which was set up in 2010, is 55% owned by the Libyan Africa Investment Portfolio (a $6bn SWF, whose parent company is the LIA) and has some close ties to the North African nation.

Developing the Libyan financial services industry

Not only do its non-executive directors include Mohamed Taher Siala, who has been Libya's deputy foreign secretary; Khaled Kagigi, the CEO of LAP and Ramadan Haggiagi, its head of investments, but the firm has also been teaching professionals from the country's fledgling finance industry and its SWFs about the art of investing.

Student's that enrol into FMCP's Financial Education have the chance to: "become full-time employees of the Company for a period of 5 years, and are trained on the different functions of Asset Management. FMCP intends to help create a pool of world-class asset managers."

And the teachers include professors and lecturers from the London School of Economics, New York University, International Capital Markets Centre, Oxford, Imperial College London, UCL and a range of French universities.

The course also includes advice on how to find employment in the financial services industry in anything from portfolio management to IT development.

Illustrious alumni

FMCP initially set a target headcount of 40 and its staff now includes ex-GSAM head of hedge fund strategies for Europe and Asia, Alexandre Darre; Francois Le Barazer, formerly director in index volatility at Bank of America; Matthias Lennkh, previously head of funds derivatives at Bear Stearns and Aurelien Bessot, who worked at Rabobank during the same period as Marino.

It does, however, say it's constantly looking for new talent, but that all FMCP staff have a "minimum market experience 10 to 15 years" and a "strong commitment to the educational spirit of the company".

FMCP has always held the view that it has no political agenda, and indeed has been looking extend its client-base into other oil-rich nations like Nigeria, Ghana, Angola and Rwanda.

There's also no certainty that a change of government would cause any change in investment policy within Libya's sovereign wealth fund, particularly as the country still needs to urgently diversify its economy away from oil. The inner workings of the LIA remain relatively opaque, however, with it scoring a rating of just two on the Linaburg-Maduell Transparency Index.

So there are no guarantees, but there's no doubt that the FMCP, like many firms with ties to the LIA, will be keeping close tabs on the developments in Libya in the coming days.