Our Investment Footprint

Citadel Capital invests across the Middle East and Africa. To begin with, the dynamic Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region offers unique investment opportunities for those with the local insight to identify them and the world-class expertise to capitalize on them. With a population of 322 million, the MENA region is the third-largest in the world: twice as large as Russia and more than four times larger than the United Kingdom. More than 60% of the population is under the age of 30, further supporting the region’s attractive demographics.

Events across the region in 2010 have not reshaped MENA’s compelling fundamentals, which include energy earnings flowing into the GCC and around the region; strong sovereign fiscal positions in our key markets; economic diversification and infrastructure spending programs announced by many regional governments; government legislative and fiscal support for private sector development; a sound regional banking system; a fast-growing and essentially un-leveraged consumer class; and the continuing shift of energy-intensive industries from Southern Europe to North Africa.

Indeed, the global competitiveness of the MENA countries — particularly Egypt, the region’s most diverse economy and a natural global export and manufacturing hub — will only rise as long-term political risk is mitigated by the emergence of greater democracy even at the price of slower short-term growth.

Further to the south, the African continent is home to some 54 countries and is more than three times the size of the United States. Africa, with the world’s fastest growing population, crossed the 1 billion mark in 2010 and presently accounts for approximately 15% of the world population, while its 2010 GDP of approximately USD 1.7 trillion totaled just 2.75% of global production.

While much of the world looks at Africa as a pure “commodities play” — leveraging high global commodity prices against relatively accessible untapped natural resources across the continent — Citadel Capital believes African investors must themselves take the lead on large-scale infrastructure and industry investments that will catalyze economic development and have a multiplier effect across regional economies.

As in the Middle East, the Firm sees substantial opportunities presented by the strong growth of the continent’s consumer base — which is leading to increased consumption and which will translate into stronger demand for consumer finance — as well as by a “value-added” approach to management of the continent’s natural resource wealth, which will prioritize higher-value exports as opposed to pure sales of commodities.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that world growth stood at 5% in 2010, while Africa’s GDP grew just below the world total at 4.7% and G7 economies expanded at 2.8%.

By 2015, Africa as a whole is projected to see annual growth of 5.5%, growing faster than the world, at 4.7%, and well above G7 economies, which are expected to expand at 2.2%.

At a disaggregated level, Africa is home to a majority of the world’s fastest growing economies. Over the past decade the simple unweighted average of countries’ growth rates was virtually identical in Africa and Asia, IMF data suggests, and over the five years from 2010 to 2015 Africa is likely to take the lead.  Put simply, the average African economy will outpace its Asian counterpart.

This unique combination of growth and liberalization creates a range of attractive investment opportunities not available in more mature economies.