CAIRO: Cairo-based private equity firm Citadel Capital said Wednesday it did not postpone the date of its initial public offering (IPO), contrary to some local news reports. The company told Daily News Egypt that the IPO date was never set in the first place, so it could not be postponed. Citadel Capital confirmed, however, that due-diligence and assessment on the company were completed in preparation for the IPO. Some local newspapers reported Tuesday that Citadel Capital postponed its IPO to an indefinite date as a result of the ripple effects of the global economic meltdown on the local stock market. Wednesday's edition of Al-Masry Al-Youm quoted Ahmed Heikal, Citadel's chairman and CEO, as saying, "This is not the right time for the IPO in light of international and regional financial market turmoil. Citadel Capital announced earlier this year it planned to offer around 15 percent stake in an IPO to finance future projects in Egypt and the Middle East. The firm is one of the largest private equity firms in the region and pours investments worth more than $7 billion in industries including oil and gas, cement, mining, retail and food. As the financial market turmoil has taken world economies into its grip, Hisham El Khazindar, managing director of Citadel Capital, told a panel discussion on Tuesday that the company would be "cautious in making future investments. "The current negative impact on global growth will continue to stay for a while. We are not out of the woods yet, he said. The company is a partnership between six Egyptian investors who collectively own 67 percent stake in the company and the Emirates International Investment Company (EIIC), which owns 16 percent, while various co-investors retain the remaining shares.
