Enel, Italy's largest utility, is to decide within two weeks whether to recommend one of two offers for Wind, its telecoms subsidiary, in what will be Europe's largest private equity buy-out.

Bids have been submitted by a consortium comprising Blackstone, Providence Equity Partners, Permira, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and Citigroup; and Weather Investments, a consortium led by Naguib Sawiris, the Egyptian entrepreneur, with backing from Wilbur Ross and Philippe Nguyen, the US and French private equity entrepreneurs.