By Nawal Sayed
CAIRO, Feb. 12 (SEE) - Egyptian
billionaire Naguib Sawiris said he would invest in Venezuela “anytime” after President
Nicolas Maduro leaves office. He stressed that Maduro “starves his own people,
he starves the whole country, he ruined the country,”
“He should leave," Sawiris told
Bloomberg Television in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.
The Venezuelan leader has held on
for years in the face of protests, a collapsed economy and international
sanctions through a tight grip on the military and by cracking down on the
opposition.
The $5 billion- net worth billionaire,
according to Bloomberg’s Rich list, has invested across emerging markets and in
some developed nations throughout his career, including setting up a
mobile-phone operator in North Korea.
He said on Tuesday that he sees
opportunities in Africa and other Latin American countries, including Brazil
and Argentina.
One exception is Italy, where
Sawiris said he could deploy $300 million as the government mulls selling
state-owned properties. “The government sits on one of the most lucrative
real-estate assets in the world.”
Sawiris first ventured into Italy in
2005, when he bought mobile-phone provider Wind in what was Europe’s biggest
leveraged buyout at the time, according to Bloomberg's report.
“I had a very good experience,” he
said. “I was treated fairly. All doors were open for a foreign investor from
Egypt. I will never forget this.”
Sawiris owns stakes in gold mines
through his closely held company, La Mancha Resources. He told Bloomberg last
year that he had invested half of his net worth in gold. “I am continuing to
invest in gold,” he said.
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