Citadel Capital, a leading investment company in the Middle East and Africa region, said it has won approval from its shareholders to increase its capital to 8 billion Egyptian pound ($1.14 billion) from the present EGP4.35 billion.

The shareholders who met yesterday for the ordinary and extraordinary general meetings, ratified the key resolutions related to the Citadel Capital's ongoing capital increase, thus sending a clear message backing firm’s transformation into an investment holding company, said the company in a statement.

At the Extraordinary General Meeting, the shareholders voted to approve continuing the ongoing second phase of a capital increase, which will see the firm’s issued capital rise by EGP 3.64 billion to EGP 8 billion from the present EGP4.35 billion.

All outstanding and unsubscribed shares from the first round of the subscription process is likely to be acquired by shareholders through cash deposits or in exchange for the shares’ value in liabilities owed to them by the firm and attested to by a report from the firm’s auditor of record, the statement added.

Commenting on the move, chairman and founder Ahmed Heikal, said: “The fact of the meeting having attracted a quorum of 57.19 per cent of all issued shares - the highest attendance at a Citadel Capital general assembly in the past three years - is a clear vote of shareholder confidence in our ongoing transformation into an investment holding company that will stand as an African leader in infrastructure and resources.”

The firm expects the second subscription round for the capital increase to be fully subscribed and completed within the coming three weeks, he added.-TradeArabia News Service