June 5 (Bloomberg) -- Egyptian entrepreneur Naguib Sawiris agreed to sell shares in Weather Investments SpA for 1.1 billion euros ($1.7 billion) to Apax Partners Worldwide LLP, TA Associates Inc. and Madison Dearborn Partners LLC.

``With our new private equity partners in Weather we are ideally positioned to pursue our value growth strategies leveraging on the strong operating performance in each of our subsidiaries and to explore new areas of growth,'' Sawiris said in an e-mailed statement from Rome today.

Richard Wilson, head of technology and telecoms at Apax, Ajit Nedungadi, managing director at TA Associates, and Michael P. Cole, managing director at Madison, will join Weather's board, according to the release.

Weather controls Wind Telecomunicazioni SpA, Italy's third-largest mobile-phone company, which it bought in 2005 from Enel SpA. Weather purchased 63 percent of Wind for 3 billion euros and assumed about 7 billion euros of debt. In December 2006, Weather bought the remaining stake for 1.96 billion euros.

Weather also owns Greek wireless company Wind Hellas Telecommunications SA and a majority stake in Orascom Telecom Holding SAE, the largest mobile-phone company in the Middle East and north Africa.

In August, Sawiris began exploring the sale of a stake in Weather, shelving plans to hold an initial public offering because of the market's slump after the turmoil in credit markets. At the time, he told Bloomberg News that Blackstone Group LP, TPG Inc., Ripplewood Holdings LLC and Permira Advisers LLP were interested in the stake.

Weather said in a separate statement yesterday that it repaid a 962 million-euro loan and interest to Enel SpA related to the 2006 stake purchase.

To contact the reporters on this story: Chiara Remondini in Milan at cremondini@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 5, 2008 03:57 EDT