MILAN: Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris said on Wednesday he aimed to raise about 2 billion euros from the listing of Weather Investments, which controls Italy s second biggest mobile phone operator, Wind. Sawiris, who heads Weather Investments, also said it would likely go to market in Milan by the end of this year at the earliest. We haven t decided yet, but I think by the end of the year or the beginning of the next, he said on the sidelines of a conference. Two billion is the figure that we are aiming to raise with the operation and the free float will depend on the valuation that emerges, he said. Although he declined to specify the free float, sources have told Reuters that it could be about 25 percent. Weather Investments took full control of Wind in February by acquiring the shares it did not already own in the operator from Italian utility Enel. Weather Investments acted as a vehicle through which Egyptian telecommunications group Orascom bought Wind in a deal worth more than 12 billion euros, one of Europe s biggest leveraged buy-outs.
Sawiris, who is also chairman of Orascom, said he was still interested in making acquisitions, but preferred to wait until the listing had taken place. Reuters
