Landbank, a private company set up to organise an £800 million leisure project to build the ‘Monaco of North Africa’ on the Mediterranean coast of Libya, is preparing to float on AIM. Tony Williams of Wessex Ventures is chief executive of the new company, which is currently seeking €5 million (£3.4 million) pre-float seed funding and has hired adviser Beaumont Cornish to help prepare it for a move to London’s junior stock market.

Samir Mattar, an influential Arab entrepreneur whose extensive contacts in the region include Libyan ruler Colonel Gaddafi, is playing a key role in the Green City Resort project, which has a 90-year lease on 248 hectares 50 miles from the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and an option on another 650 hectares. Williams says the plan envisages an entire new purpose-built village, an ‘iconic’ 55-floor central building, a casino-cum-conference centre, nine hotels, high-quality shopping malls, and one large marina for ‘Abramovich-size’ yachts with another for more modest vessels.

Specialist surveyor Humberts Leisure is advising Landbank on the Green City project, reports Williams. He says Aeroports de Paris will be the chief contract operator, with French electricity groups playing a part and several UK companies involved in marketing and other functions.

Arthur J Gallagher has been arranging insurance for Green City, which Williams reckons should be complete in five to seven years. Beaumont Cornish is helping choose a board to inspire investors’ confidence that the project can become a profitable reality, rather than an ambitious mirage.