Orascom patriarch Onsi Sawiris dies aged 91, Al Arabiya reports

Sawiris remained the head of the company for five years before he moved to Libya in 1966. (Supplied)

• The father of Naguib Sawiris, chairman and CEO of Orascom Telecom Holding, was born on Aug. 14, 1930

RIYADH: Egyptian billionaire Onsi Sawiris has died at age of 91, Al Arabiya reported.
The father of Naguib Sawiris, chairman and CEO of Orascom Telecom Holding, was born on Aug. 14, 1930.
After graduating from Cairo University in 1950 with a BA in Agroculture, he started work in a contracting company involved in road paving and digging irrigation canals, that was later nationalized.
Sawiris remained the head of the company for five years before he moved to Libya in 1966, and worked there in contracting before returning to Egypt in the mid-70s.
Onsi Sawiris founded Orascom General Contracting and Trade in 1976, known later as Orascom Construction Industries.
His company’s activity expanded in the 1980s and 90s, to include tourism, hotels, computer services and mobile phones.
By the time of his death the group had become one of the best known corporate names in Egypt.