Two U.S.-based private-equity firms Wednesday said they had sold Greece's third-largest mobile phone operator, TIM Hellas Telecommunications SA, for U

Sawiris is the head of one of the Middle East's largest cellphone operators, Orascom Telecom.

The sale by Texas Pacific Group and Apax Partners Worldwide LLC to Sawiris' Weather Investments SPA includes $3.8 billion of net debt.

Apax and TPG acquired TIM Hellas from Telecom Italia in June 2005 for 1.6 billion euros ($2.1 billion). In January 2006, the consortium completed the follow-on acquisition of Q-Telecom, the fourth largest Greek mobile operator, from Info-Quest SA for 360 million euros ($466 million). Q-Telecom is included in the sale announced Wednesday, which is subject to European Commission approval.

Giancarlo Aliberti, managing director of Apax Partners, Italy, who led the deal for Apax Partners, said the consortium had lifted TIM out of the financial doldrums.

"Management did a great job in reversing a very serious downward trend of operational performance we found when we acquired the company," Aliberti said. "The subsequent combination of TIM Hellas with Q-Telecom contributed in a second stage to create a strong company with excellent long-term prospects."

Weather Investments, controlled by Sawiris, owns 100 per cent of Italy's third largest cellphone operator, Wind Telecommunicazioni SPA.

Orascom operates cell networks in Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt,
Iraq, Pakistan, Tunisia and Zimbabwe.

source news : news.yahoo.com