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Wafra

Wafra is Citadel Capital’s Platform Company for agricultural production in Sudan and includes the rights to more than 500,000 feddans of land through investments held under portfolio companies Sabina (254,000 feddans in northern Sudan) and Sudanese Egyptian Agricultural Crops Company (SEAC, 250,000 feddans in southern Sudan).

These projects will engage in large-scale cultivation of cash crops including grain sorghum, maize, sunflower, rice and various grain legumes and together comprise one of the largest agricultural projects in Sudan.

Wafra continues to explore complementary regional development initiatives and expects to develop into a significant player in the agriculture sector.

Operational Developments
Citadel Capital created Sabina in September 2008 as a portfolio company for investment in Sudanese agricultural production. Sabina holds Citadel Capital’s agricultural investment near Kosti, where it has obtained a 30-year lease, renewable for similar periods, on a 254,000-feddan plot of fertile land, 37 kilometers of which are located directly on the Nile. Sabina’s holdings are located in Sudan’s White Nile State, which lies approximately 300 kilometers south of Khartoum. Part of the land has been designated specifically for the cultivation of sugar cane and the rest will be used for various cash crops.

SEAC, a second Wafra portfolio company, was formed in early 2009 under a contract for 250,000 feddans of land in southern Sudan. The plot is in close proximity to a river port owned by Keer Marine, Citadel Capital’s Platform Company in the Sudanese river transportation and logistics sector. SEAC’s agricultural land is near the city of Bentiu in South Sudan’s Unity State (Welayet Al-Wehda), approximately 600 kilometers north of the South Sudan capital of Juba.

In 2009, Citadel Capital engaged industry expert Peter Schuurs, who had previously served in both Botswana and Sudan, to lead SEAC. At Sabina, head count rose from zero to 37 by year’s end with the appointment of Managing Director John Elgin (an Australian national with 20 years of experience) as well as experienced chief financial officer, chief operations manager and field development manager, among other new hires.

By year’s end, Sabina had 32,000 feddans of land under cultivation and had taken delivery of a significant amount of equipment. SEAC has completed detailed technical, financial and marketing assessments and is now in the procurement phase, with on-site development activities scheduled to begin in early 2010.

Sabina is on track to have 2,000 feddans under cultivation by June, while SEAC will be ready to seed a significant area of land by the onset of the rainy season in mid-2011.

Finally, Wafra announced in April 2010 that portfolio company El-Nahda for Integrated Solutions had signed an agreement with the White Nile Governorate for a 30-year lease on 60,000 feddans of land in Ed Dueim (150 kilometers south of Khartoum) on which it will build Sudan’s first large-scale commercial rice farm.

The farm will produce rice primarily for domestic consumption in Sudan (a net importer of rice) while allowing any excess rice to be exported to other nations in Africa and the Middle East.

The farm will grow high-quality long-grain rice, which El-Nahda will process at a new mill to be constructed on site.

Industry: Agriculture and consumer foods
Investment date: September 2007
Investment type: Consolidation
Citadel Capital ownership: 100%
Targeted citadel capital ownership: 49%