Discount cafes and supermarkets company Cofix (TASE: CFX) today announced that it had sold less than 1% of the shares in Rami Levy Hashikma Marketing, its controlling shareholder, for NIS 20 million in an off-floor deal at just over NIS 184 per share, a 3.5% discount on today's market price. Rami Levy Chain Stores Hashikma Marketing 2006 Ltd. (TASE:RMLI) share price is up 1.5% in today's trading on the TASE.
Cofix's market cap is NIS 120 million, following a 15% rise in its share price this year.
The shares sold by Cofix were allocated to it by Rami Levy early this month, one year after 20% of Cofix's shares were allocated to Rami Levy in exchange for allocating 0.8% of Rami Levy's shares to Cofix as part of Rami Levy's acquisition of a controlling interest in Cofix.
The allocation agreement granted Rami Levy an option, which was exercised, for an additional allocations of Cofix shares, giving Rami Levy a total holding of 50.01% of Cofix's shares after the option was exercised. In return, Rami Levy allocated its own shares to Cofix "according to the established formula," thereby increasing Cofix's holding in Rami Levy's shares to 1.4% before today's sale of Rami Levy shares by Cofix.
Cofix reported a capital gain of nearly NIS 4 million in its reports for 2018, due "primarily to an increase in the price of the shares in the Rami Levy chain held by the company, which were allocated to the company in the framework of the Rami Levy transaction." Cofix's net loss nevertheless rose 160% to NIS 7 million in 2018, after losing nearly NIS 8 million in its cafes business and NIS 4.5 million in its supermarkets business.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on April 15, 2019
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2019