On Sunday, Egyptian private equity firm Citadel Capital said it had won clearance to ask shareholders' approval for capital increase. This showed an increase in confidence in the country's financial markets. The capital increase was valued USD528 million. If it pushes through, it would be one of the largest capital raisings in Egypt from its 2011 revolution. Citadel requested regulatory approval for the share sale last year. This was after the company had struggled losses in the past two years.
However, the plan was not able to go on due to bureaucratic issues and poor market conditions. Since the ouster of the former Egyptian leader, the stock market of the country went up by more than 15%.
Citadel would hold a shareholder meeting to propose issuing 182.1 million preferred shares. The company would also propose 546.3 million common shares with value of EGP5.0. This would raise its total number of shares to 1.6 billion and paid-in capital to EGP8 billion. The amount raised would be used to strengthen Citadel's ownership to between 51 and 100% in most major companies in which it would invest. Citadel particularly had eyed businesses in the energy, agriculture, mining, transport and cement industries.
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