Sawiris Selling Weather Stake

Naguib Sawiris is close to agreeing the sale of 20-25% of his telecom holding company Weather Investments to three private equity funds for about Euro1bn, the weekly Il Mondo said in an unsourced report.

The deal to sell the stake in Weather, which controls Italian telecoms group Wind Telecomunicazioni, will be signed with Apax Partners, Goldman Sachs Equity Partner and TA & Partners, Mondo said.

Under the agreement Sawiris is committed to buying back the stake if the funds fail to exit the company within two years via a listing, Mondo said.

Without citing sources, Mondo said that private equity group Blackstone is considering the acquisition of 100% of Wind.

Blackstone and Permira both withdrew from the bid for a stake in Weather because they believed the valuation of the group was excessive, Mondo said.