Cairo: Naguib Sawiris, chairman of Orascom Telecom, said his holding company Weather Investments was talking to telecoms group Vimpelcom about a merger and was open to talks with others, a newspaper reported.
This was the first time Sawiris has confirmed the talks in published remarks after banking sources earlier told Reuters he was discussing a deal potentially worth $6.5 billion (Dh23.9 billion) without debt. "We are not only talking to them, we are talking to anybody," Sawiris told Canada's The Globe and Mail in reference to merger discussions with Vimpelcom.
Orascom's spokeswoman was not immediately available to comment on the report. Sawiris, whose telecoms assets include markets stretching from North Korea to Europe to Canada, has for years predicted a consolidation of the global telecoms industry and said he aimed to take advantage of it.
The deal with Vimpelcom could give Sawiris and his partners around 20-23 per cent of voting shares in the combined firm.
An earlier attempt by Sawiris to sell assets to South Africa's MTN broke down after the Algerian government refused to let Orascom offload its unit Djezzy there. Djezzy, Orascom's main revenue earner, was the deal's crown jewel, and brokers and bankers worry intervention from the Algerian government could overshadow another deal attempt.
"We have two things on our agenda right now — solving the Algerian issue and, second, finding a good partner for the group," Sawiris said.
Eager to sell
Below is a chronology of Sawiris' recent attempts to sell some or all of his assets:April 23 - MTN says it is in talks about a potential deal to buy Orascom assets. April 27 - A source says talks to sell Orascom assets to MTN include Djezzy, its Telecel Globe-branded sub-Saharan assets and its 50 per cent stake in a Tunisian operator. April 28 - Algeria says it will block any sale of Djezzy after the companies confirm talks are under way. May 27 - Bowing to pressure, Orascom says it will enter talks to sell Djezzy to the Algerian government. June 2 - Sawiris tells Reuters that MTN offered to pay $7.8 billion for Djezzy before Algeria halted the deal.June 9 - MTN and Orascom Telecom say sale talks end without a deal. July 1 - Sawiris' cash-strapped Greek operator Wind Hellas invites bids for the company, which is restructuring its debt for the second time in a year. August 12 - A newspaper report, confirmed by two banking sources to Reuters, says Sawiris is in talks with telecoms group Vimpelcom to sell Wind Italy and a majority stake in Orascom. August 17 - An Italian newspaper says Vimpelcom and Sawiris are near to signing a non-binding term sheet for the sale of Sawiris' investment vehicle Weather Investments.
