The era of Nochi Dankner as the controlling shareholder of IDB Holding Corp. Ltd. (TASE:IDBH) is over. The Eduardo Elsztain-Motti Ben-Moshe consortium received over 75% of the bondholders vote for a clear victory in the second round of voting this evening. In the first round of voting Dankner received 35% of the votes with Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI), one of the major institutional investors in IDB, abstaining. In the second round Bank Leumi voted for the Elsztain-Ben-Moshe consortium, handing them a crushing victory.
Earlier in the day Bank Leumi had paved the way for Elsztain's victory saying, "Bank Leumi's board of directors decided to abstain in tonight's vote on the two bids for the acquisition of IDB Holding," said the bank in a statement, adding, "In its vote, Bank Leumi expresses its dissatisfaction with the two bids submitted by the two consortia. However, Bank Leumi believes that a quick solution should be drawn up and a settlement reached for the creditors of IDB Holding and IDB Development, and it will therefore support in its second vote, if there is one, the bid that will win the most votes in the first vote."
The Elsztain-Ben-Moshe consortium had been expected to win 70-75% of the IDB bondholders' votes. The supporters included the IDB bondholders representative comprising Gilad Pension Fund, Excellence Investments Ltd. (TASE: EXCE), Psagot Investment House Ltd., Harel Insurance Investments and Financial Services Ltd. (TASE: HARL), and Meitav DS Holdings Ltd. (TASE:MTDS), and private bondholders representative by Ohad Aloni and Keren Brosh.
Dankner personally has no plans to give up, and he is reportedly planning legal action against the vote. His legal team, led by Adv. Ram Caspi is already drawing up objections to the Elsztain-Ben-Moshe consortium's bid, which will be field with the court on Wednesday.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 8, 2013
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