Supermarket mogul Rami Levy is poised to purchase Israir Airlines after his bid through his BGI Investments was chosen by Adv. Ophir Naor, the court-appointed trustee on behalf of bondholders for IDB Development Corp., Globes reported on Tuesday.
IDB group, the parent company of Israir, was placed in receivership after failing to pay its debts and Psagot Investment House head Naor was appointed to manage IDB’s assets.
Three bids were placed for Israir but Levy’s bid was chosen due to the major financial synergetic potential of his supermarket retail chain Rami Levy. According to the Globes report, Levy has a plan for Rami Levy loyalty club customers to accumulate points for Israir flights and package tours, to offer duty-free items at “Rami Levy” prices and to buy mobile phone roaming services from Rami Levy Communications.
Levy’s bid was also attractive due to the fact that he said he would keep Israir’s senior management in place, including CEO Uri Sirkis.
Levy’s BGI offered NIS 162 million ($50.4 million) for a 51% stake in Israir. Levy will inject capital into the airline and will personally hold 24% of the stock, with the bondholders holding 25%. At a later stage, BGI will take full ownership of Israel and the shares purchased by Levy and the bondholders will be converted to BGI shares.
The other two bidders were businessmen Yigal Dimri and Moti Ben-Moshe through Dor Alon.
IDB has been trying to sell Israir for two years.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
One Response
So long as Israeli Government has impudence of closing their skies to us {but not to politicians} it is an awful way of wasting money investing in an airline ostensibly not capable of conducting business.