Aides of Mordechay Zisser claim that he has found a "serious party", which will give him NIS 80 million in interim financing, which he will be able to use to repay his debt to Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI) next week.
Sources inform ''Globes'' that Mordechay Zisser has failed to sell his private hotel company Beapart NV, missing the deadline for repaying his debt to Bank Hapoalim. Dutch-registered Beapart NV owns Europe Israel (MMS) Ltd., which owns 47% of Elbit Imaging Ltd. (Nasdaq: EMITF; TASE: EMIT). Zisser gave the bank the lien in August 2010 as collateral as part of a debt settlement.
The aides say that Bank Hapoalim is aware of the late payment and about the third party, and that this is acceptable to the bank. Bank Hapoalim has not confirmed the matter, and a spokesman declined to comment on the report.
The aides add that the sale of Beapart is stuck, which they blame on pressure by Bank Hapoalim on Zisser. They assert that the potential buyer is aware of this bank's pressure and are therefore trying to force Zisser to lower his asking price for the company. Beapart owns hotels in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Zisser was due to repay his debt to Bank Hapoalim yesterday, after repeated postponements. Zisser had claimed that he had no problem in meeting the payment, but that he wanted a new agreement with the bank on the general terms of his debt.
A banking source said yesterday that Bank Hapoalim no longer trusts Zisser. "Until the money is in the bank, it will be hard to trust Zisser. He has kept none of his promises, and nothing he says is implemented."
Zisser owes Bank Hapoalim about NIS 1 billion, and has been in arrears for a year. The bank earlier extended the previous payment deadline of August 31.
Elbit Imaging's share price rose 90% in the week through Sunday on reports that Zisser was about to reach a deal with the bank. The share price rose 3.7% in early trading on the TASE today, after falling almost 20% on Monday and Tuesday. The share price fell 6.7% on Nasdaq yesterday to $4.07, giving a market cap of $ 101 million.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 2, 2011
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