Orascom’s boss Naguib Sawiris called “a liar” by the UK High Court

The Egyptian tycoon Naguib Sawiris has been ordered by Lord Justice Nicolas Patten to pay his former partner more than 75 millions euros.
A lawsuit concerning Europe's largest leveraged buyout was tried in the U.K. High Court in 2009 and will be heard by the Court of Appeal in July 2010. In the court case, Lord Justice Nicolas Patten ordered Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris to pay his former Italian business partner more than EUR 75 million ($104 million) over the acquisition of Wind, a telecommunications company. In 2005, Naguib Sawiris completed the deal using a strategy his business partner designed.
According to court documents, Naguib Sawiris' business partner stated in his case that he introduced the proposed acquisition of Wind to Naguib Sawiris, who had no relevant contacts with Wind, Enel, or the Italian government, and no direct experience of or standing in the telecommunications market. He argued that Naguib Sawiris agreed to give him a one-third equity stake worth billions in an investment company called Weather Investments that was used to acquire control of Wind. Naguib Sawiris countered that he made no such agreement, and that his partner deserved no more than a 1 percent fee. Naguib Sawiris ultimately acquired Wind through Weather in a deal worth more than EUR 12 billion ($18.7bn) from Italian utility Enel. Naguib Sawiris told the court he was bad with dates, and the judge described him as being "equally dogmatic about and often insistent" that certain of the meetings described by his business partner (for example, the 22nd April 2003 meeting in Cannes) did not occur. The judge found evidence sufficient to be satisfied that the aforementioned "meeting did take place" between Naguib Sawiris and his partner, as Naguib Sawiris's passport entries and the manifests of his private jet indicated that he was indeed in Cannes on 22nd April. The judge referred to Naguib Sawiris' "lack of accuracy" during the trial and said at times he "did resort to bluster and, on one occasion, told what can only be described as a deliberate lie about his involvement in other litigation."
"For this reason, I have approached his evidence with caution," the judge said of Naguib Sawiris.
Despite the ongoing litigation, Naguib Sawiris is rapidly trying to sell a 10 percent stake in Weather Investments.

Naguib Sawiris seeks to profit from misery in Greece

Egyptian telecom tycoon Naguib Sawiris is taking an opportunity to profit in another impoverished country. As one of Egypt's richest businessmen, Naguib Sawiris is no stranger to living the good life while surrounded by some of the poorest people on earth.
As the owner of WIND Hellas Telecommunications, the third major telecom provider in Greece with annual turnover of EUR 1.26 billion as of 2008, Naguib Sawiris said he is "not ruling out" a second debt restructuring at his company. Naguib Sawiris added that competition in the Greek mobile phone market has been "fierce" and stated that the "price war will be catastrophic for everyone." Naguib Sawiris doesn't hide his desire to profit while Greeks struggle to survive. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel sent the Greeks a EUR 22 billion lifeline to help the country avoid bankruptcy.

Naguib Sawiris, meanwhile, doesn't care about Greece's survival. A true capitalist, he plans to make gains off of the EU's most fragile member. "We believe there is a genuine chance that prices will start stabilizing, if not even go back to a higher level," Naguib Sawiris said of Greece, "so we can all return to profitability."