Naguib Sawiris is the founder of Orascom Telecom Holding which became the leading regional telecommunications player until its merger with Vimpelcom in 2011. In 2015 he managed the acquisition of Euronews, Europe’s top news channel, which has an African subsidiary, Africanews, and was appointed Chairman of its board. He is Executive Chairman of Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding and Chairman of the investment holding company OTMT Investments, which holds interests in ICT, finance and infrastructure.
Since joining Orascom, the family business in 1979, Sawiris has contributed to the growth and diversification of the company into what it is today one of Egypt’s largest and most diversified conglomerates and the country’s largest private sector employer. Sawiris established and built the railway, information technology, and telecommunications sectors of Orascom. The success of these ventures as well as the other sectors of the company led to the management’s decision to split Orascom into separate operating companies in the late 90s: Orascom Telecom Holding (OTH), Orascom Construction Industries (OCI), Orascom Hotels & Development and Orascom Technology Systems (OTS).
As the founder of OTH, Sawiris has led the growth of the company, culminating in the merger deal between Wind Telecom, the parent company of Orascom Telecom Holding and VimpelCom Ltd. in April 2011. At the time, the merger created the world’s sixth largest mobile telecommunications provider by number of subscribers with operations in 20 countries serving 181 million customers. As part of the merger deal, Sawiris spun off Orascom Telecom’s non-gsm operations and Egyptian-based telecom assets into Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding of which he is chairman.
Sawiris led the acquisition of La Mancha Resources Inc through a tender offer launched by Weather Investments II. La Mancha Resources Inc. is an international gold producer based in Canada with operations, development projects and exploration activities in Africa, Australia and Argentina.
