The Arab National Cement Company (ANCC), a subsidiary of regional cement producer ASEC Cement, issued today the following statement:\n\nThe Arab National Cement Company (ANCC) has not laid off or dismissed any member of its workforce.\n\nANCC’s greenfield cement plant, currently under construction, is located some 220 kilometers south of Cairo in the Minya governorate. The 2-million-tons-per-year plant employs state-of-the-art technology and adheres to the highest international safety and environmental standards.\n\nANCC’s Minya project will create 400 direct and 1,500 indirect jobs — including indirect jobs created during the course of construction. The plant is expected to go into production during the first quarter of 2013.\n\nANCC appointed a number of leading contractors and sub-contractors to complete construction of the project. These contractors handle civil, mechanical and electrical works, as well as supervision and quality control.\n\nESACO, a civil contractor awarded the civil works related to the project, completed its work in January 2012. As a result, ESACO has demobilized its workforce on the project site, estimated around 200-250 workers. ESACO is independent from ASEC Cement and ANCC and is neither owned nor managed by ASEC Cement or ANCC.\n\nANCC is firmly committed to the community in which it operates as it looks forward to providing high-quality Portland grey cement for key infrastructure and real estate projects in Upper Egypt.\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 control Platform Companies with investments of US$ 9.0 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 (2006-2011, as ranked by Private Equity International). For more information, please visit www.citadelcapital.com.\n\nASEC Cement is a Portfolio Company of ASEC Holding, Citadel Capital’s platform investment for cement, engineering and construction in the Middle East and Africa. Created by Citadel Capital and a group of leading co-investors, ASEC Cement is growing into a leading regional cement production group that will have a combined production capacity of approximately 10 million tons per annum in 2015 spanning four countries from Algeria to Sudan.\n\nFor more information, please contact:\nMs. Ghada Hammouda\nHead of Corporate Communications\nCitadel Capital (S.A.E.)\n\nghammouda@citadelcapital.com\n\nTel: +20 2 2791-4440 • Fax: +20 22 791-4448\nMobile: +20 10 6662-0002