Psagot Investment House Ltd. yesterday completed its takeover of Gadish Global Financial Services (2007) Ltd, Israel's largest fund, which has 745,000 members and NIS 19.8 billion under management, and fund management company Gmulot Ltd. The final price tag for Gadish, following the decline in its assets, was NIS 629 million, 3.175% of assets managed, compared with the original price tag of NIS 676 million in mid-2007.
The seller, Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI; LSE:80OA), will record a capital gain of NIS 383 million on the sale in its financial report for the first quarter of 2008. With the sale, the bank has completed its mandated sale of mutual and provident funds under the Bachar capital market reforms. The bank completed its obligations ahead of Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI), which still has to sell the provident fund of its employees.
Bank Hapoalim has to complete the sale of subsidiaries Bank Massad and Bank Yahav for Government Employees Ltd., and it will only be allowed to begin providing pension advice when these sales are closed.
Psagot, a subsidiary of York Capital Management LLC, becomes Israel's largest investment house with the acquisition of Gadish, with more than NIS 60 billion under management. Already Israel's largest manager of mutual funds, the acquisition makes it the third largest manager of provident funds, with NIS 21 billion under management. The acquisition was financed by a syndicate headed by Israel Discount Bank (TASE: DSCT). Psagot's chairman is Arik Steinberg and its CEO is Roy Vermos.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 25, 2008
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