The Azrieli Group, which owns Sonol through its subsidiary Granite Hacarmel, announced Monday its in talks with several buyers for the gas station chain, including David Wiessman.
Azrieli has been focusing on offloading business interests which do not align with their core real estate opeartions. The group emphasized that it has given no guarantees to any of the interested parties.
The Azrieli Group said: "At this stage, there is no certainty regarding the structure or the size of the sale of Sonol, or whether the talks actually reach binding agreements."
Granite Hacarmel's operations were recently listed for sale. Earlier in the year the company sold its desalination plant at Palmachim to the Israeli Infrastructure Fund for NIS 430 million.
Later, Granite Hacarmel agreed to sell Supergas to electronics importer Tadiran, but the deal was never completed.
Azrieli has been trying to sell Sonol for several years, with no success.
The gas station chain finished the second quarter with a 20% decrease in revenue, to NIS 1 billion, due to falling fuel prices. Its reported a 39% hit to its operational profit -- down to NIS 25 million -- mainly due to losses on inventory and the influence of currency fluctuations, alongside with increasing expenses.
The operational profit for the first half of the year is nearly identical at NIS 27 million -- a sum which highlights the 53% drop compares to the respective period in 2014.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 26, 2015
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