Citadel Hiring Citigroup, EFG for Taqa Share Sale

Citadel Capital SAE, an Egyptian private equity company with $4 billion of assets, is in the process of hiring Citigroup Inc. and EFG-Hermes Holding SAE to manage the initial public offering of its energy unit, Taqa Arabia. The shares will be sold “around June,” Citadel’s Chief Financial Officer Ahmed El Shamy said in a telephone interview today, declining to provide details. Citadel, which first said in September 2009 it may sell shares of Taqa Arabia, has held off making the decision until market conditions improve. “Citadel is finalizing the agreements with the banks and is in the process of signing,” he said. “The key is investors will be able to see the market value of Taqa,” Hatem Alaa, a Cairo-based analyst at Egyptian investment bank AlembicHC, said by telephone. Citadel shares rose 3.8 percent to 9.53 Egyptian pounds at the 2:30 p.m. close in Cairo, valuing the company at 6.3 billion pounds ($1.1 billion). The stock has gained 17 percent in the past two weeks. “We’ve been seeing a very solid trend over the last few weeks from institutional buyers,” El Shamy said Construction of Egyptian Refining Co.’s $3.6 billion oil refinery, Citadel’s biggest project, will start “immediately” after final documents are completed within the next few weeks, El Shamy said. Cairo-based Citadel has investments in the Middle East and Africa, according to its website.