ONE of the Middle East’s biggest mobile-phone groups, Orascom Telecom, has been put up for sale in a move that could trigger a bidding war between Europe’s leading telephone companies.

Orascom chief executive Naguib Sawiris, 52, has appointed a team of investment bankers to study options for Orascom, including an auction. He is the eldest of three brothers who run family companies that make up about 40% of the value of the Egyptian stock exchange. If the brothers decide to sell, they could expect to see Orascom valued at about $17 billion (£8.4 billion), including debt.

A deal would have the potential to transform Europe’s mobile-phone landscape. All the established players, including Britain’s Vodafone, are eager to increase their presence in fast-growing markets such as the Middle East and Africa, but have few opportunities to do so.

Informal discussions over the future of Orascom have already been held with Deutsche Telekom, the German giant that owns T-Mobile. Sources said that Orascom would make an obvious fit with Deutsche, which has made no secret of wanting to expand into emerging markets, but added that the discussions were at a very early stage and may not result in a deal. Other possible buyers include Vodafone, Spain’s Telefonica and France Telecom.

Orascom, which is based in Egypt, operates in nine countries in the Middle East and Africa. It has more than 65m customers in developing markets such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Egypt. It is listed in Cairo, but has a secondary quote in London, from where its international operations are run.

It is thought that Naguib Sawiris, who is personally worth $10 billion, according to Forbes magazine, is cashing in on the desire of the industry’s giants to move into emerging markets as they struggle to maintain expansion in mature markets.

In February he told a telecoms conference: “For me it’s about the money. I’m the largest shareholder in my company, so I am very interested in the money . . . Where I smell money I go.”

In recent years Sawiris has added significantly to his mobile portfolio through his investment vehicle Weather Investments, which is also the holding company for Orascom.

Earlier this year, Weather snapped up Tim Hellas, Greece’s third-largest mobile operator from Texas Pacific Group and Apax, the private equity firms, in a deal worth €3.4 billion (£2.4 billion).

In 2005 Weather bought Wind, Italy’s third-largest mobile operator, from Enel, the Italian energy company, in a deal worth €12.2 billion. Sawiris has recently been trying to sell a stake in Weather to raise an estimated €1 billion for a final payment to Enel.

Last week Orascom sold its 14.2% stake in Hutchison Telecoms back to the company’s Hong Kong-based parent, Hutchison Whampoa, for almost $1 billion. VODAFONE has struck a deal in India with two rival operators to pool the building of new mobile-phone towers, power-supply and cooling systems that could save it $1 billion over the first five years. It will own 42% of Indus Towers, which starts life with 70,000 sites, but this will rise to 130,000 after three years as coverage is expanded in rural areas. Only half of India’s population can currently get mobile reception. Bharti and Idea are Vodafone’s two partners.

Indus has already been in talks to sell a stake to private-equity firms. Mobile operators are pooling infra-structure to save money. T-Mobile and 3 will this week unveil a joint venture company for network sharing in Britain.

Vodafone will still run its own network in India, bought for £5.7 billion in February. It has 37m customers in the country. The company will update investors on its plans tomorrow.

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