SFR deepens Sawiris" focus on telecoms Naguib Sawiris, the Egyptian telecoms magnate, is considering buying SFR, France's second-biggest telephone company by sales, from Vivendi in a deal that could be valued at €13bn-€14bn. Mr Sawiris confirms that he is interested in the struggling French telecoms group, but says that the size of the deal was too large for him to fund on his own. "We are looking at [SFR] though one of our subsidiaries," he tells the Financial Times. The problem is that the numbers are very high. [Vivendi owns] big assets so would require a big group. The interest in SFR, which is at an early stage, comes just days after the Egyptian billionaire lodged an offer with Telecom Italia to back a rights issue that would allow the group to pay down debts and expand in Latin America. The French and Italian moves mark a very public return for Mr Sawiris, whose activities in the telecoms market had quietened since he sold the majority of his telecoms assets to VimpelCom. It comes as Vivendi - a telecoms and media conglomerate - is engaged in a root and branch review of its structure, which could lead to the sales or spin-offs of its three telecoms companies: SFR, Morocco's Maroc Telecom and Brazil's GVT. A person close to Vivendi said he believed a more likely outcome for the SFR business was a deal or joint venture in its home market. Vivendi is in talks with Numericable, a French cable group owned by private equity firms Carlyle, Cinven and Altice, about a possible SFR merger. Analysts at Jefferies value SFR at €13.7bn, or 4.5 times expected 2013 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation. Mr Sawiris has form in the sector, having built a global telecoms operation that was sold to VimpelCom last year for more than $6bn. He led the €12.2bn leveraged buyout of Wind in Italy in 2005. He had in recent years focused his energies on backing the Christian political party in Egypt, but now says that he makes a better businessman than politician. I'm disappointed about the political situation in Egypt. I think I will be doing more in business than politics in future," he says ruefully. Part of his investment activity - which includes backing a hedge fund and a private equity group - will always be focused on the telecoms sector, he says. Mr Sawiris rules out another attempt to bring together a single, large global operation, however. When you have made your business in telecoms it is hard to get out of it. Weather II [an investment vehicle in which Mr Sawiris is chairman] intends to always allocate some of its equity in the direction when conditions are right," he says. Potential targets are companies where investment would make an immediate difference and where a management change could turn around performance. He says: "These are assets Weather II would buy, improve and dispose of later on like private equity." He still owns telecoms operations, not least in North Korea, where he says that business is booming. We are nearing 2m subscriptions. Everyone thought we would have 5,000. Mr Sawiris rarely stays out of the market for long. His recent decision to create a private equity group to seek telecoms assets suggests he will be increasingly active at a period when valuations of telecoms companies have fallen sharply in worsening economic conditions. He is in no hurry, however. For the first time in my life I have zero personal debt and zero corporate debt. In this environment, it's a healthy position," he says. In fact, Mr Sawiris was still pulling strings in the telecoms industry through this period, having built a stake in Telecom Austria earlier this year that was then sold to America Movil. We tried in Telecom Austria, unfortunately the Austrian authorities did not accept our plan. So we exited and look where the stock is today.