Citadel Capital named emeafinance's 'Best Private Equity House in Africa'

The award is Citadel Capital's second prominent award win in as many months, highlighting the firm's success in 2008 despite the global economic downturn.

In January of this year, Acquisitions Monthly, the international buy-out magazine, named Citadel Capital its MENA Private Equity House of the Year for 2008. The Acquisitions Monthly Awards are widely acknowledged as among the most prestigious designations in the international financial services industry.

"It's great to be named Africa's Best Private Equity Firm," said Ahmed Heikal, Chairman and Founder of Citadel Capital. "This recognition — coming at a time when the private equity industry is facing global challenges — is a great endorsement of the effectiveness of our control investment strategy, our team and the attractiveness of the frontier markets in MENA where we have chosen to focus."

The nod comes as Citadel Capital expands operations across its core North African footprint. The firm also has plans to open offices in South Sudan and Ethiopia.

Commenting on the firm's success in 2008, Heikal noted, "We decided in the fall of 2007 to slow new investment activity and focus instead on growing our existing Platform Companies. As a result we feel our portfolio is in a good shape to weather the downturn and take advantage of opportunities that will surely present themselves in the months ahead."

In addition to completing six bolt-on acquisitions in 2008, Citadel Capital also completed a $45m partial exit of its controlling stake in ASCOM Geology and Mining, a regional geological mining and services company. Also last year, the firm raised over $350m of equity and five-year term debt at the general partner level.

Since 2004, Citadel Capital has generated more cash from exits than any other private equity investor in the Middle East and North Africa region. From all its transactions to date, Citadel Capital has returned $2.2bn in cash to its investors (3.0x+ invested capital).

Citadel Capital remains one of only a handful of private equity general partners worldwide to make significant investments in its own transactions. Having raised significant amounts of capital in 2008, the firm is well-positioned for what will likely be great vintage years for private equity investing in 2009 and 2010.