Citadel Capital, a leading investment company in Africa and the Middle East, announced that it has completed asset purchases and add-on investments worth a combined EGP 2.628bn. "The acquisitions and add-on investments are part of the firm's ongoing transformation from a hybrid private equity firm into an investment company that will hold majority stakes in five core industries, including energy, transportation, agrifoods, mining and cement," the company said in an official statement issued on Thursday. The investment company added that it expects to make additional asset purchases with a value of EGP 132m during the coming period. Earlier in October, following the approval of the shareholders at an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM), Citadel Capital launched a transformation process to increase its capital by EGP 3.64bn. The company explained that shareholders and investors, who have sold their stakes in platform companies to Citadel Capital, will contribute EGP 2.671bn to the company's capital increase plan, as per their contractual obligations. The company stated that it intends to "use part of the proceeds of the capital-raising to finance payments related to transactions that will see the firm increase its stake at selected platform companies". Citadel Capital added that once share issue is complete, at par value EGP 5, the firm's paid-in capital will increase from EGP 4.36bn to reach EGP 8bn. The company also announced that it aims to exit non-core investments over the coming few years "as it transforms its business model to become an investment company". On the same day, the company announced the signing of an agreement to acquire a $534m in debt that had been extended by select international lenders to the National Oil Production Company (NOPC), for a total value of $60m. Citadel Capital owns 14.86% of the oil and gas exploration and production company. The company pointed out that this transaction aims to restructure NOPC's debt position to allow the company to regain its footing and improve its economic viability, adding that this may potentially allow Citadel Capital to recoup a portion of its investments in NOPC, the value of which is fully written-down on Citadel Capital's consolidated financial statements. In December, the company reported that it had continued narrowing its consolidated net loss by 38.3% year on year to EGP82.7m. "We are broadly pleased with our consolidated performance in the third quarter and look forward to closing early in the new year our ongoing EGP 3.64bn share issuance, which we will use to obtain majority control of most of our core platform companies as we transform into an investment company," said Ahmed Heikal, the company's chairman and founder. "The quarter's results clearly indicate that our emphasis on delivering operational improvements is bearing fruit," Heikal added.
