Thursday, Oct 04, 2007
CAIRO (Zawya Dow Jones)--Cairo-based equity firm Citadel Capital said Thursday it raised its capital to 1.2 billion Egyptian pounds ($215 million), from EGP912 million through executing a rights issue to existing shareholders.
Citadel said investments currently under its management now exceed $7 billion after concluding several major deals.
The firm's deals in the past several months include the establishment of an oil refinery in Cairo with $2.25 billion worth of investments, the acquisiton of Canada's Rally Energy for $843.2 million, the acquisition of Egypt's agricultural development project Dina Farms for $86.17 million and the establishment of MENA Glass with a capital of $120 million.
"We see a lot of potential in the region, there are several other deals in the pipeline," Ahmed Heikal, Citadel Capital Chairman, said in a statement.
"Typically Citadel Capital will invest 10% to 20% of the needed equity in any transaction, thus we decided to raise Citadel Capital's paid-in capital to allow us to proceed with the many opportunities we are currently addressing," he added.
Citadel Capital was founded in 2004 by Ahmed Heikal and Hisham El-Khazindar. The firm's other partners are Karim Sadek, Ahmed El-Houssieny, Marwan El Araby and Ahmed El Shamy.
The company is owned by its six managing partners, owning a combined 74% of the firm, including its Chairman and largest shareholder, Ahmed Heikal, with 40%, and by Emirates International Investment Co. owning 20%. Other financial investors own the remaining 6%.
-By Maha El Dahan, contributing to Dow Jones Newswires, +20122267850, mahaeldahan@yahoo.com
Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
04-10-07 1324GMT
