Telecom Italia In talks To Sell Internet Unit To Sawiris

Telecom Italia SpA (TIT), the largest Italian telecommunications company, is in talks to sell its Matrix SpA Internet Unit to the Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris.

This news was according to a person with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg.

Telecom Italia SpA (TIT) is listed on the Borsa Italiana and  was founded in 1994 by the merger of several state-owned telecommunications companies, the most important of which was Società Italiana per l’Esercizio Telefonico p.A. (known as SIP from the earlier Società Idroelettrica Piemontese), the state monopoly telephone operator in Italy.

Orascom Telecom Media & Technology Holding SAE (OTMT.CA) , a Cairo-based mobile-phone company controlled by Naguib Sawiris, rose as much as 2.2 percent to EGP 1.41 before closing at EGP 1.39 on Thursday.