Word: orascom
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Naguib Sawiris likes to think of himself as a Middle Eastern Richard Branson. Last year the Egyptian entrepreneur started Iraq's first mobile-phone network. After just six months, his company, Orascom Telecom, already had more than half a million subscribers, earning $95 million before taxes and interest. Like Branson, Sawiris is a music lover--he calls himself a "party animal"--and has a taste for risky ventures...
...most profitable operations," says Sawiris, 50, sprawled on a leather chair in Orascom Telecom's ornate Paris office. "I take a lot of risks, but calculated risks." Now Sawiris stands on the edge of his biggest gamble, and it's not in an unstable country. This month he closed a massive $15.6 billion deal with the Italian utility Enel to acquire a 62% stake in its mobile-phone network, Wind. Sawiris borrowed more than $12 billion...
Naguib seems to have inherited his father's golden touch. Over the past six years, Cairo-based Orascom Telecom Holding has grown into an increasingly profitable company, with more than $4 billion in revenue and 17.1 million subscribers in Muslim countries, including Algeria, Egypt and Tunisia...
Although Sawiris has always been able to rely on family money, his path to international success has not been entirely straight. He was once bailed out by Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian leader, who approved a sizable investment in Orascom when it was struggling...
Since getting back on its feet, Orascom has jettisoned some markets, including Chad and Ivory Coast, and concentrated on a handful of key nations. At the top of the list is Algeria, where Orascom has more than 70% of the market. The firm also has 6 million customers in Pakistan...