Egyptian private equity firm Citadel Capital said on Sunday it narrowed third quarter losses by 30 per cent in 2011 despite a challenging local and regional environment.

The company said it made a standalone net loss of 20.7 million Egyptian pounds ($3.5 million) in the third quarter compared with a net loss of 29.6 million Egyptian pounds in the same period last year.

"Cost-cutting at the firm and platform company levels has allowed us to preserve cash, while new fundraising from international limited partners and regional co-investors alike has seen us add important equity and debt to key platform investments," Citadel Capital chairman and founder Ahmed Heikal said in an e-mailed statement.

The firm, which focuses on the Middle East and north Africa, said it made a consolidated net loss for the first nine months of 446.6 million Egyptian pounds according to a filing on the stock exchange on Sunday.

The company had reported a net loss of 160.6 million pounds for the same period a year earlier, the exchange added.

In October, Citadel completed a $175.6 million capital increase and in November it secured a $150 million, 10-year financing facility from a US government's Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), taking the firm's long-term capital to $325 million.

The company, which then said the extra capital would help it weather an expected 12 to 18 months of turbulence ahead, is scaling back investments outside its existing projects until Egypt's political and economic outlook becomes clearer.

Egypt is in the middle of its first parliament elections after the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak in February in a popular uprising that caused a flight of foreign investors and tourists. – Reuters