Rozenberg New Controlling Shareholder of El Al

YERUSHALAYIM
El Al airplanes at Ben Gurion Airport. (Olivier Fitoussi/FLASH90)

A chapter in the painful saga of El Al Airlines’ financial woes came to an end on Wednesday as a public offering of $150 million in shares was completed, Globes reported.

Out of the three private individuals who were seeking to take over the troubled company, in the event, only Eli Rozenberg actually submitted a bid.

El Al’s share price stood at NIS 0.77.4 at the close of trading, 5.59% above the minimum price for the offering. Rozenberg said prior to the offering that he would buy $101 million out of the $150 million in shares on offer, which would give him a controlling 44.9% stake in the airline.

Meir Gurvitz and David Sapir, the other two potential bidders, had by then bowed out.

The Israeli government has committed to buying any shares not purchased and then put up 75% guarantees for bank loans of up to $250 million for the bailout.

Rozenberg made purchase through a holding company created for the purpose called Kanfei Nesharim Aviation. Its executive committee featured, among others, former U.S. Mideast envoy Jason Greenblatt, before that chief legal officer of the Trump Organization.

Other members of Kanfei Nesharim’s management team include: former Israeli Ambassador to the UN Prof. Gabriela Shalev, a jurist who is today a member of the Higher Academic Council at Ono Academic College who will be responsible for legal matters: former IDF Head of Central Command Major General (res.) Roni Numa will be responsible for security matters, Reem Aminoach, Head of the UHY Shtainmetz Aminoach & Co. accountancy firm will be responsible for financial matters. Moti Engelman, CEO of Reut Airways will be responsible for aviation matters. Also on the management team are economist Doron Cohen, a former coordinator of staff in the Ministry of Finance’s budget division and a former head of the Government Companies Authority, and Amikam Ben-Zvi, the former chairman of the Israel Standards institute.

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