“2013 will be a good vintage year for private equity investments in the post-Arab Spring countries — provided you’re willing to consider longer holding periods,” said Citadel Capital Managing Director, Abdalla ElEbiary at the S&P 500 Leaders Forum in Abu Dhabi.\n\nElEbiary who participated in a panel that discussed revisiting business models and the alignment of investment strategies with current market opportunities, told an audience of senior business leaders that fundamentally a good vintage year in private equity is having a fund that closes with lots of cash and lots of well priced opportunities that it can target.\n\n“Asset prices across the region are not skyrocketing at the moment because there is still a wait-and-see attitude among many investors. Considering what we view as compelling regional fundamentals such as population growth, energy deregulation, an unmet demand for energy and governments who are willing to pullback and let the private sector take the lead, then investments made in 2013 will capture outstanding upside potential between investment and exit provided they are well run,” said ElEbiary.\n\nCitadel Capital, the leading private equity firm in Africa and the Middle East controls investments of more than US$ 9.5 billion in key sectors including energy, mining, agriculture and consumer foods, transportation and logistics and cement manufacturing. The firm has invested US$ 4 billion in Egypt since 25 January 2011, including the arrangement of full financing for ERC, a US$ 3.7 billion petroleum refinery that will help reduce by 50% Egypt’s present-day diesel imports, generate more than US$ 300 million in annual benefits to the state treasury, and reduce by nearly one-third the country’s present sulfur dioxide emissions.\n\n“We see good opportunities as we look to grow our core investments but longer holding periods are definitely the order of the day. Whether it’s brownfields like RVR (our investment in the African railway sector which includes a five-year turnaround program) or greenfields like Nile Logistics (our river transport and logistics platform) and ERC, the holding periods in our corner of the woods for large-scale investments are necessarily longer than those traditionally preferred by many Western LPs, which creates a great opportunity for long-term investment companies, said ElEbiary.\n\nThe S&P Leaders Forum, now in its third year, is an annual invitation-only gathering that brings together leading members of the business community with senior government and regulatory figures to discuss timely and key economic issues in the Middle East\n\n—Ends—\n\nCitadel Capital (CCAP.CA on the Egyptian Stock Exchange) is the leading private equity firm in the Middle East and Africa. Citadel Capital focuses on building regional platforms in select industries through acquisitions, turnarounds, and greenfields executed via Opportunity-Specific Funds. The firm’s 19 OSFs now control Platform Companies with investments worth more than US$ 9.5 billion in 15 countries spanning 15 industries, including mining, cement, transportation, food and energy. Since 2004, Citadel Capital has generated more than US$ 2.2 billion in cash returns to its co-investors and shareholders (on investments of US$ 650 million), more than any other private equity firm in the region. Citadel Capital is the largest private equity firm in Africa by PE assets under management (2007-2012, as ranked by Private Equity International). For more information, please visit www.citadelcapital.com.\n\nFor more information, please contact:\n\nMs. Ghada Hammouda\nHead of Corporate Communications\nCitadel Capital (S.A.E.)\n\nghammouda@citadelcapital.com\n\nTel: +20 2 2791-4439 • Fax: +20 22 791-4448\nMobile: +20 106 662-0002