Grandview Investment Holding

Grandview Investments Holdings Corp. (Grandview) is an investment company established by Citadel Capital and co-investors to invest in mid-cap companies in the Middle East and North Africa region with a focus on Egypt. It has invested in key industries including packaging and building materials. Grandview targets companies with an enterprise value of less than US$ 60 million. Grandview is managed by Sphinx Capital, a private equity management company.

Grandview has an initial paid-in capital of US$ 95 million and has invested approximately 110% of its committed capital in highly successful transactions in key industries. Grandview targets mid-sized companies that are primarily focused on serving the Egyptian market. Citadel Capital’s internal valuation of Grandview’s portfolio already shows a substantial appreciation in value against acquisition cost.

All of Grandview’s portfolio companies have shown strong resilience during both the 2009-2010 economic crisis and the political upheaval that took place in Egypt in early 2010. With several primary and secondary M&A transactions in the pipeline, Grandview aims to create shareholder liquidity while remaining firmly committed to capital growth within the Platform Company.

Grandview’s diversified portfolio of investments will mitigate the negative short-term impact of an economic slowdown. Portfolio stakes have been revalued accordingly to reflect bearish market conditions, both on the marketability of the assets held and the performance of each company. As a result net asset value has dropped by 15% to stand at US$ 156 million down from US$ 179 million in 2009. Gross IRR stood at 18% while total return stood at 74%.

OPERATIONAL UPDATE

All of Grandview’s funds are managed by Sphinx Egypt, a dedicated private equity management company formed by Citadel Capital and Marianne Ghali (who also manages the American University in Cairo’s Educational Endowment Fund) to leverage the knowledge and expertise gained by Citadel Capital in larger investments.

The firm targets the acquisition of controlling interests in mid-sized industrial companies with proven management, stable cash flows and strong potential for expansion and exports. The firm has a broad outlook on opportunities, being equally interested in pursuing distressed assets.

Grandview’s current portfolio includes investments in a broad variety of sectors including printing and packaging, specialty building materials, oil services, textiles and electrical cables as well as restaurants and hospitality.

Post-acquisition, Sphinx Egypt maintains a close working relationship with its Portfolio Companies, assisting them with financial engineering and strategic repositioning as well as investment and divestment strategies.