Of all the countries that have come through the Arab Spring, Libya may have had the hardest journey – and, with Colonel Gadaffi having only met his end in recent weeks, faces the most uncertain future. However, fund managers believe that the country could also offer outsize returns for those willing to gamble on a successful transition towards democracy.

A closed economy until the revolution, the Libyan government has inherited huge foreign assets, estimated by the International Institute of Finance to stand at around $110bn, or roughly three times its projected GDP for 2011.