Weather rains on Orascom's buy-back plans

Italian holding company Weather Investments does not intend to sell any of its shares in Orascom Telecom, a Reuters report said.

The report said Orascom is seeking to buy back 12 million of its own shares for about €119 million (US$186 million).

Weather, which is owned by Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris and has a controlling stake in Orascom Telecom, said in April it would sell some of its OT shares to OT under a previous buy-back offer which ended on May 14.

The earlier buyback offer, for 106 million shares, was more than three times subscribed, but neither company announced how many shares, if any, Weather had sold, the Reuters report further said.