Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) investors are mainly exposed to Heftsiba Building Development & Investments Ltd. through the bonds of three public subsidiaries: Heftsiba Global Ltd. (TASE:HFGL), Heftsiba Jerusalem Ltd. (TASE:HFZJ), and Heftsiba Hofim Ltd. (TASE:HFZB.B1).
However, because Hefstiba Diur and Holdings chairman and CEO Boaz Yona, who is the controlling shareholder of these three companies, has vanished, and is apparently abroad, the Israel Securities Authority has notified the companies’ bondholders and their directors that they must take over the management of the companies and estimate their risk and exposure to the collapse of their parent company.
Heftsiba Jerusalem is the first of the companies to formally notify the TASE about the extent of its exposure and the measures it plans to undertake. The board’s first decision was to fire Boaz Yona, who served as CEO of the company, and cancel all his signatory rights on behalf of the company and its subsidiaries in Israel and overseas. The board has also frozen, with immediate effect, all business activity until the board convenes. Thirdly, the board has appointed two directors as authorized signatories, together with Heftsiba president Mordechai Yona, Boaz Yona’s father, who controls Heftsiba Building’s privately held subsidiaries.
Heftsiba Jerusalem’s board believes that Heftsiba Building’s problems should have no substantial affect on the company’s business, unless illegal actions were taken without the board’s knowledge. The company plans to check whether any such actions have been taken.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on August 6, 2007
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2007