Sawiris enters Canadian wireless market

Naguib Sawiris, Egyptian billionaire and CEO of Orascom Telecom Holding, is preparing to invest in the Canadian telecoms market through his company Weather Investments.

Sawiris’ telecoms empire currently spreads across the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe.

Weather will be an investment partner of Globalive Communications, a small private Canadian firm that won licences in Canada’s recent wireless spectrum auction and which currently provides long-distance phone calls at discount rates.

Globalive plans to build a wireless network across Canada, having spent C$444 million (US$439 million) in licence bids, and is confident it will be able to buy enough spectrum to become a national player.

The government auction of wireless spectrum aimed to bring fresh competition to the country’s wireless market has attracted bids reaching more than C$4 billion so far.

Sawiris commented that the lack of competition in the country created an attractive opportunity for his company.

“The environment is not competitive enough, which means at the end the consumer is not receiving the best deal,” Sawiris is quoted as saying.

Sawiris is building a telecoms empire through Orascom’s investments in networks in Algeria, Pakistan, Egypt, Tunisia, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, with 74 million subscribers as of the end-March 2008, while Orascom’s subsidiary Cheo Technology acquired a mobile licence in North Korea in January.

Weather acquired Wind Telecom, the third Italian mobile operator for €12.2 billion (US$19.16 billion) in 2005.

Last year Weather also acquired the Greek mobile carrier TIM Hellas in a €3.4 billion deal and later rebranded it to Wind Greece.