The English Court of Appeal has rejected a claim by Mr. Alessandro Benedetti that he was entitled to a stake in Weather Investments, the telecoms holding company controlled by Egypt’s Naguib Sawiris. The appeal follows a decision originally made by  the English High Court in June 2009.

The Court of Appeal upheld Mr. Sawiris’ position that Mr. Benedetti has no legal right to any shares in Weather Investments or any of its related companies and the Sawiris family companies were exonerated from all liability to Mr. Benedetti.

Mr. Sawiris and his family’s companies succeeded in their appeal, with the court reducing substantially the original award of EUR 75.1 million down to EUR 14.52 million, for the services Mr. Benedetti provided in the course of the acquisition of Wind Telecommunicazioni in 2005. Mr. Benedetti has also been ordered to pay the legal fees of Mr. Sawiris and his family companies in the original case, which exceeded EUR 10 million.

This outcome stands in stark contrast to Mr. Benedetti’s initial claim in 2007 of being entitled to one third of the shares of Weather Investments and the court’s initial judgment to award him EUR 75 million.

Prior to the initial litigation, Mr. Benedetti had rejected an offer by Mr. Sawiris as compensation for his role in the acquisition of Wind Telecommunicazioni, choosing instead to commence court proceedings claiming much more.

Mr. Sawiris was quoted as saying “my family and I are very happy that justice was served and that we can now put this issue to rest.”