* Debt package seen secured by Jan
* Brazil's ALL to troubleshoot, help make changes
By Richard Lough
NAIROBI, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Egyptian private equity firm Citadel Capital expects to secure a debt package by early 2011 for its east African railway venture, its managing director told Reuters on Thursday.
Karim Sadek told Reuters that Rift Valley Railways (RVR) was still two years away from delivering a service where cargo clients would see a "real difference" in reliability.
Revitalisation of the rail network between Kenya and Uganda is viewed as critical to expanding intra-regional trade. More than 90 percent of the cargo arriving in Mombasa's port that is destined for Uganda, south Sudan, Rwanda and Burundi is transported by road.
"We hope to have something in place in terms of complete financial closing, meaning securing the debt package, by January," Sadek said in an interview.
The $280 million capital expenditure programme will be funded by roughly $160 million in debt, $80 million in new equity in addition to existing equity and the balance from cash flows, he said.
He said RVR had more or less finalised a deal with America Latina Logistica, a Brazilian holding company that operates railways in Argentina and Brazil, to troubleshoot and help implement changes.
"Their role is basically to analyse the problems, which they have done, and come up with solutions. For example, RVR was previously a parastatal, so how do you build a merit based company, how do you run efficient fuel consumption?" he said.
"EAT, DRINK AND GO TO WORK"
Following a legal wrangle earlier this year with feuding RVR shareholders, Citadel is now the dominant stakeholder with 51 percent via its subsidiary Ambience Ventures.
Kenya has also invited bids for a separate new high-speed railway to run along the same route.
Sadek said Citadel was looking to expand its east African portfolio with investments in the agriculture and food processing, microfinance and transport sectors.
"People in this part of the world will continue to eat, drink and go to work. So that is what we will focus on."
"They (sectors) basically have a much bigger market, smaller margins but the volumes are huge and they are less liable to external hits unlike real estate, commodities," he said.
On the agriculture and food processing front, Citadel will target the supply-side rather than retail, he said.
"Stuff like packaging, the glass jars, the plastic. We've still not identified a specific opportunity ... we're still scanning," he said. (Editing by David Clarke and Jon Loades-Carter)