SAWIRIS: "NOT ONLY TELECOM WANT SFR TOO"
Il Egyptian tycoon could turn over GVT (controlled by the French) to Tim Brasil in exchange for shares. The tycoon al Financial Times: “For the first time, he has zero debt. At this stage it is a great advantage”
Not just telecoms. The great return of Naguib Sawiris on the European TLC chessboard also comes from another, even more sensational, operation: the purchase of Sfr, a subsidiary of Vivendi worth 13,5 billion euro.
The interest in the French group is revealed by Sawiris himself in an interview with the Financial Times. “We are studying Sfr through one of our subsidiaries – said Sawiris -. The fact is that it is a large-scale investment, which requires the intervention of a large group”.
The possible Sfr operation would not be an alternative, but complementary to the investment in Telecom Italia. Indeed, Sawiris' entry into TI would be welcome to Franco Bernabe because it would guarantee TI the necessary financial means to the purchase of GVT, the Brazilian subsidiary of Vivendi (which controls, in addition to Viven, also the Moroccan Telecom). The Egyptian financier, in the event of gaining control of Sfr, could thus turn around in exchange for GVT shares to Tim Brasil.
But what are the concrete possibilities of Sawiris in France? According to the Financial Times, the Egyptian financier is in the second row: the most probable buyer of Sfr remains Numericable, the French cable company controlled by Carlyle, Cinven and other private companies. But Sawiris doesn't give up.
“For the first time in my life – he explains in the interview – I have no personal debts. And in the current market situation it is a position of considerable advantage”. As for financial "ammunition," Sawiris is equipped with a private equity, Weather 2, which "can buy assets, sell, attract financing like any private equity".
After all, the ambition to become the number one telecommunications operator from Europe dates back a long time. Last year Sawirs bought a stake in Austria Telekom. "But the authorities in Vienna - he comments - did not understand my plan". Now the telecommunications tycoon is trying again, starting with France and Italy. Someone like him, who among other things controls North Korean Telecom (“we have two million subscribers, the experts said we would stop at 5 thousand…”), cannot sit idly by: the call of the forest tlc is too strong. Especially now that Sawiris, a Coptic Christian, has shelved the idea of creating a Christian party in the new Egypt. “I am very disappointed by the evolution of Egyptian politics. I believe that in the future I will do business, not politics". Easy to believe him.
