The Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI) general shareholders meeting scheduled for March 11 may be postponed. Banking sources believe that, in view of the opinion given by Prof. Omri Yadlin and Prof. Sharon Henes, the bank will postpone the meeting to April 21.
Bank Leumi will also publish the procedures for submitting candidacies for directorships under the provisions of Article 87 of Bank Leumi's bylaws (submission of an independent candidate by shareholders). In response, Bank Leumi's largest private shareholder, Shlomo Eliahu, is expected to petition the court to order the bank to hold the shareholders meeting on the original date, so that his nominee, Dr. David Klein, can be a candidate.
The postponement of the shareholders meeting means that the appointments committee, headed by Margalit Nof, will have to decide whether to reopen its recommendations and present five new candidates for the board. Alternatively, the committee could extend the term of office of four incumbent directors, as it planned, and add a fifth candidate instead of Galia Maor, who withdrew her candidacy at the beginning of the week.
Reopening the candidates list will enable Moshe Tery, Ori Yogev, and Israel (Izzy) Tapoohi, who are close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to stand officially as candidates for the Leumi board. In any event, Tapoohi has expressed interest in standing via the Article 87 track. It is believed that, Tery, a former head of the Israel Securities Authority, who enjoys very strong political backing, will be the state's leading candidate, and so his chances of becoming chairman of the bank are high.
Yadlin and Henes advised Bank Leumi's board of directors to postpone the special general shareholders meeting by 56 days. They said that the later date would make it possible to nominate candidates for directorships both under the provisions of the Companies Law, and under Article 87 of Bank Leumi's bylaws, which gives any shareholder the right to nominate himself or another person as a candidate for a directorship.
Yadlin and Henes submitted their opinion to Bank Leumi chairman Eitan Raff today.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 18, 2010
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