Enel sells Weather stake to Sawiris for $2.6 bln

CAIRO: Enel has agreed to sell its remaining 26.1 percent stake in Weather Investments to controlling shareholder Naguib Sawiris for ?1.962 billion ($2.59 billion), the Italian energy firm said on Thursday. Enel said the amount would be paid in two installments, adding it expected the transaction, to be signed over the next few days, to close by year end. “This completes our strategic refocusing on our core electricity and gas business, Enel CEO Fulvio Conti said in a statement. Weather Investments wholly owns Italy’s second biggest fixed-line phone operator Wind and controls Orascom Telecom. Sawiris, in a separate statement, said Enel had been “great partners in this first foray into the European market, adding that he had “great confidence in further increasing [his] investment in Italy. Last year, Enel sold 62.75 percent of Wind to Weather for almost ?3 billion in cash in one of Europe’s biggest leveraged buyouts. Under the deal, Enel also agreed to an option to sell the rest of Wind earlier this year for Weather shares worth ?328 million, raising its stake in Weather to 26.1 percent.