The board of directors of the US Overseas Private Investment Company (OPIC) has approved up to $100 million in financing for new investments made by Citadel Capital and its Joint Investment Funds, according to a statement from the Cairo-based private equity and infrastructure investor.
Stephen Murphy, managing director of institutional relations at Citadel, said OPIC’s funds would be invested alongside Citadel and its $500 million MENA and Africa Joint Investment Funds across selected deals ranging from traditional buyouts to turnarounds, greenfield and growth capital opportunities throughout the Middle East, North Africa and East Africa.
Sectors targeted by the joint investment funds include waste management, transportation, logistics, manufacturing and alternative energy. Citadel typically invests in Egyptian companies which are used as platforms to expand throughout the region.
In a June 4 2009 speech at Cairo University, US President Obama announced that the US would launch a fund “to support technological development in Muslim-majority countries, and to help transfer ideas to the marketplace so they can create more jobs”.
Following this speech, OPIC in October last year issued a call for proposals to manage a private equity investment fund or funds that would promote the growth of technology in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Financing would range between $25 million and $150 million in total capital for each fund or funds.
The news follows the recent announcement that the International Finance Corporation had agreed to invest $120 million in Egyptian Oil Refinery, a $3.7 billion oil refinery in Greater Cairo in which Citadel is an 8.2 percent shareholder.
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