Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI) appointments committee chairwoman Adv. Margalit Nof is furious at political interference by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu through his emissaries, Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz and Minister of Justice Yaakov Ne'eman. Nof is angry at a legal opinion that Steinitz sent the appointments committee yesterday evening, calling it gross political interference by the Prime Minister's Office in the appointment of a new chairman for the bank.
The opinion states that Bank Leumi president and CEO Galia Maor must take a cooling-off period, and therefore cannot serve as a director of the bank or its chairwoman. However, other members of the appointments committee say that it cannot rely solely on the legal opinion submitted by Maor, which says that her special skills exempt her from the cooling-off period. These committee members say that it should obtain an independent legal opinion.
Since the law states that the appointments committee sole link to the government is the duty to consult before announcing a chairman, the committee can rebuff any government interference. In other words, legal opinions by the Attorney General and the Ministry of Finance legal counsel are not binding on the committee. The Nof appointments committee may therefore have to obtain an independent legal opinion by Sunday, the deadline for setting the date and agenda of the general shareholders meeting.
The appointments committee is due to complete its discussions by Friday, and submit to Bank Leumi by Sunday morning a list of five candidates for the board of directors. The board will convene Sunday evening to set the date and agenda of a meeting of general shareholders who are not parties at interest in the bank, as demanded by the bank's largest private shareholder, Shlomo Eliahu.
Last night, Steinitz called Nof and told her to accept the legal opinion written by the Ministry of Finance legal counsel and Deputy Attorney General (economics and fiscal) Avi Licht. The opinion states that the law does not recognize a situation in which a person affiliated with a bank, but who has special skills, can become a candidate for a directorship without a cooling-off period.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 28, 2010
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