"Capital Trust" and "Proparco" invest in "Wadi Holdings", a holding company operating in the agricultural and food industries in Egypt through a transaction of 8,5 million dollars

Beirut- April 19, 2010- "Capital Trust" announced today, in cooperation with "Proparco" the French government development arm, part of "L'Agence Française de Développement (AFD)", their investment in "Wadi Holdings", a holding company operating in the agricultural and food industries in Egypt, through an investment of 8,5 million dollars.

Capital Trust stated that its investment fund "EuroMena" has contributed 5.5 million dollars in the Wadi transaction and "Proparco" contributed 3 million dollars.

Wadi Holdings owns 14 subsidiaries operating in the agricultural and food industries with around three thousand and five hundred employees and revenues of around $240 million in 2009.

Wadi Holdings operates in 4 business units. The major unit relates to poultry and focuses on raising chicks of various world breeds and the production of one day old chicks that are sold to farmers to raise them up in order to have table eggs and poultry meat. Wadi Holdings was awarded many prizes in Egypt and the Middle East region, for applying strict bio-security procedures, and for being the leader in the implementation of such procedures.

Wadi Holdings operates as well in the agricultural and food sectors. It focuses on olive and grape plantations and the production of its derivatives such as olive oil, olives, pickles and other products.

Wadi Holdings won several awards and certificates (ISO and HACCP) after having participated in many competitions organized by the World Council of olive oil.

Wadi Holdings is actively involved as well in the production and trading of feed, in addition to the production of glass containers, which is partially used for canning its own food products, with many expansion plans set in this field. Wadi Holdings aims to be the leader in the production of glass containers in Egypt in 2010 especially after the operation of new furnaces with the capacity of 240 tons per day. Mr. Moussa Freiji, Wadi Holdings

President, Mr. Tony Freiji, Executive Director and Mr. Ramzi Nasrallah, Chief Financial Officer, welcomed the new investors and confirmed that Wadi Holdings is a leader in the agro-industrial sector on the local and the regional levels and established an extensive presence in the region especially in Lebanon and Sudan."

Euromena and Proparco will assist Wadi Holdings in its expansion and growth plans. Mr. Gilles de Clerck, Senior Manager of the EuroMena Funds stated that Wadi Holdings offers significant growth opportunities in line with EuroMena investment strategy which aims to develop and consolidate the promising sectors and industries in the Middle East and North Africa.

Mr. Guillaume Mortelier, an official of Proparco, declared that he is very comfortable with the said partnership and added: "We believe it is a successful operation, considering that Wadi Holdings benefits from an excellent track-record since its foundation and opens up very promising opportunities." He pointed out that Proparco is seeking to fund a number of expansion projects related to the group, including the acquisition and development of agricultural lands in Sudan, with the development dimension of Proparco's mission and objectives.

Mr. Gilles de Clerck stated that the partnership with Freiji and Nasrallah, two lebanese families and majority owners of Wadi Holdings, will pave the way for other investments in the field of the agriculture and food industries." He added that the investment of EuroMena in Wadi Holdings is a starting point for other projects and investments in the field of agricultural and food Industries, especially that a high demand is expected in the coming years."

He added that Wadi Holdings is characterized by the diversity of the sectors it operates in while providing a wide range of exit strategies.

Mr. Romen Mathieu, Managing Director of EuroMena, pointed out that EuroMena aims as usual to exit from the investments within 3 to 5 years. He noted as well that one of the exit strategies available for EuroMena investment from Wadi Holdings is listing the company on the Egyptian Stock Exchange in the coming years then offering it for public subscription, through an initial public offering (IPO).

Mr. Mathieu confirmed that the investment in Wadi Holdings is the last one for "EuroMena I" thus the fund would have fully invested its capital in less than 4 years and declared that very promising prospects are expected for the new Capital Trust Fund, "EuroMena II". The EuroMena Fund is a $65 million private equity fund sponsored by Capital Trust Group, dedicated to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. EuroMena was established in March 2006 with the goal of developing and consolidating promising sectors and industries in the MENA region. EuroMena was successfully invested in diverse sectors including construction materials, banking, financial services, printing and packaging food, IT, insurance, etc in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine. EuroMena II was raised in 2009 with commitments of $100 million to be invested in the MENA region.

PROPARCO is a Development Financial Institution partly held by Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and private shareholders from the North and South. PROPARCO's mission is to be a catalyst for private investment in developing countries which targets growth, sustainable development and reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). PROPARCO finances operations which are economically viable, socially equitable, environmentally sustainable and financially profitable. Its sectoral strategy is tailored to the level of a country's development and focuses on the productive sector, financial systems, infrastructure and equity investment. PROPARCO invests in a geographical area ranging from major emerging countries to the poorest countries, in particular in Africa, and has high-level requirements in terms of Social and Environmental Responsibility. PROPARCO has a wide range of financial instruments to meet the specific needs of private investors in developing countries (loans, equity, guarantees and financial engineering). PROPARCO has a team of 130 people, eleven regional offices and is supported by 50 AFD Group agencies worldwide. In 2009 PROPARCO granted €1, 1 billion for over sixty projects in more than thirty countries.

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