Sources inform "Globes" that Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI) employees are interested in joining a controlling core formed after the bank's privatization. They are even interested in a seat on the board.
Leumi employees currently own around 3% of the bank's shares, and after privatization will hold over 4%.
Bank Leumi workers committee chairwoman Miri Rubino responded, "Leumi's employees have an interest in the bank's stability, it is their source of income, so we want to be partners in its control."
Rubino replaced previous Leumi workers committee chairman Louis Roth a few weeks ago, when Roth retired.
Rubino said that she intends to reach understandings with the groups who will make up the controlling core, after the government sells its stake in the bank, in order to join the controlling core. "We will seek to name a director, but I do not intend to appoint a member of the worker's committee to the role, and I don't intend to run the bank. Therefore, a financial expert who can represent us will be named as the member of the board on our behalf."
Bank Leumi employees - individually, not as a group - own shares in the bank. They acquired those shares after a previous attempt at privatization in 2005. Additionally, since 2008, some employees exercised the options which they received in the privatization, and kept the actual shares.
Additionally, according to the privatization agreement, after the government sells its shares and ceases to be the controlling interest in the bank, employees will receive the option to buy another 1.1% of the shares from the state.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 2, 2009
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