Simon Cowell has congratulated Zayn Malik on his new solo record deal with RCA.

The former One Direction star broke the news he had signed a deal with the label on Twitter and now the Syco label owner has shared his words of support for his ex-client.

The music mogul revealed he had ''been working on this [deal] for a while'' for the star.

On Wednesday (29.07.15) Simon wrote: ''We have been working on this for a while and I am pleased to say congratulations to @Zaynmalik on signing with @RCARecords,'' he wrote on Twitter (sic).''

The 55-year-old label boss went on to compliment the new partnership, as he feels ''they [RCA] are the perfect label for Zayn's solo career'' and ''whatever they release together will be special''.

His next Twitter post read: ''I believe they are the perfect label for @ZaynMalik's solo career and I am sure whatever they release together will be special(sic).''

Just before Simon had tweeted, Zayn posted a picture of him signing the deal, revealing how the new music will give him ''the opportunity to show you who I really am'', along with the hashtags ''realmusic(sic)'' and ''REALME(sic)''

He wrote: ''I guess I never explained why I left , it was for this moment to be given the opportunity to show you who i really am! #realmusic #RCA !! ... #REALME (sic)''

The 22-year-old has been busy spending time in the studio with a Grammy-award-winning producer on his new material in Los Angeles.