Sawiris plots return to Italy with TI stake swoop

According to local press reports, Egyptian telecoms tycoon Naguib Sawiris has made an offer to invest as much as EUR5 billion (USD6.35 billion) in Telecom Italia (TI). Italian daily Corriere della Sera has reported that TI’s board was presented with Sawiris’ expression of interest by chairman Franco Bernabe on Thursday, when it met to approve the latest quarterly results. Although a price was not included in the expression of interest, the newspaper said that Sawiris could invest between EUR4 billion and EUR5 billion in the fixed line incumbent. TeleGeography notes that the Egyptian is no stranger to the Italian telecoms market; prior to offloading the bulk of his telecoms assets to Russia’s Vimpelcom Group in 2011, Sawiris ran mobile operator Wind Telecomunicazioni (Wind Italy).