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UPDATE 1-Weather Investments unit places 2.7 bln euro bond

Mon Jul 6, 2009 5:52am EDT

* Says Europe's largest high-yield bond since Oct. 2006

* In two tranches, dollar and euro, at 11.75 pct

* Both due in 2017

(Adds details)

CAIRO, July 6 (Reuters) - A subsidiary of Weather Investments, an Italian holding company owned by Egyptian tycoon Naguib Sawiris, has placed a 2.7 billion euro ($3.75 billion) high-yield bond, a statement said on Monday.

"The transaction is Europe's largest high-yield bond issue since October 2006," Weather said in a statement, adding that the issue was placed by a subsidiary of Wind Telecomunicazione, itself a telecommunications company wholly owned by Weather.

The offering is split into a 1.25 billion euro 11.75 percent senior notes tranche and a $2.0 billion 11.75 percent senior notes tranche, both due in 2017, the statement added.

Weather Investments offers mobile, fixed, Internet and international communication services to more than 101 million subscribers in Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Pakistan, and Tunisia and has acquired in 2008 a license to operate mobile services in North Korea and Canada.

Weather Investments operates through its subsidiaries Orascom Telecom, Wind Telecomunicazioni and Wind Hellas. (Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Hans Peters and Simon Jessop)



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