Egyptian private equity firm Citadel Capital's shareholders recently approved an EGP3.64 billion or USD528 million capital increase this week. This is consonant with a plan to have the firm convert itself into an investment holdings company according to Citadel through a statement issued last Tuesday.

The said rights issue, which was one of the biggest in Egypt since the 2011 revolution that had removed long time President Hosni Mubarak, would raise the capitalization of Citadel to EGP8 billion.

The Egyptian regulator had previously approved a request from Citadel an increase of capitalization for the hedge fund firm. This comes after two years of continued losses because of the so-called Arab Spring that had affected the viability of its USD9 billion worth of assets under its management.

The company would be using funds to increase its ownership in its main companies, specifically in the sectors of agriculture, cement, energy, mining and transportation. The ownership would be between 51% and 100%, according to its statement issued last September. 

The shares issue would have a volume of 182.1 million preferred shares as well as 546.3 million common shares at par value of EGP5.0 per share, making the total outstanding shares of Citadel at 1.6 billion shares.