There are 24 candidates for the five open positions on the Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI) board of directors. Former Israel Securities Authority chairman Moshe Tery, until recently a leading candidate for chairman of the bank, is not among them. The deadline for submitting candidacy for a directorship was yesterday.
The general shareholders meeting which will vote on the five new directors, is scheduled for June 2, but may have to be postponed.
Conventional wisdom holds that one of the new directors will be elected to replace outgoing Bank Leumi chairman Eitan Raff. However, it is also possible that the shareholders will pick an existing director for the job.
19 shareholders submitted independent candidacies for a directorship, as permitted under Clause 87 of Bank Leumi's bylaws. They include former Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Co. Ltd. (TASE: BEZQ) and Africa-Israel Investments Ltd. (TASE:AFIL) chairman Izzy Tapuchi; former Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) (TASE: ELEC.B22) and Ayalon Holding Ltd. (TASE: AYAL) chairman Adv. Shlomo Nass; former Standard & Poor's Maalot Ltd. chairman Amos Sapir; and former deputy supervisor of banks Robert Zentler.
The government appointments committee, chaired by Adv. Margalit Nof, submitted five candidates: former Ministry of Finance director general David Brodet; Israel Phoenix Assurance Ltd. (TASE: PHOE1;PHOE5) chairman Ehud Shapira; former Supervisor of Insurance, Capital Markets and Savings in the 1980s Yehuda Drori; and former Bank of Jerusalem (TASE: JBNK) deputy CEO Yoav Nardi. The Nof committee also proposed extending the term of director Moshe Dovrat, who has completed one term.
Brodet is reportedly the leading candidate for Bank Leumi's chairmanship, and his candidacy is acceptable to both the Bank of Israel and Bank Leumi president and CEO Galia Maor.
The High Court of Justice has ordered Bank Leumi not to disclose the names of the candidates or to summon the general shareholders meeting. The court will shortly hear a petition by the Movement for Quality Government in Israel to disclose the criteria for the selection of the Nof Committee's candidates, its considerations, and the list of candidates that it reviewed. The government objects to the disclosure, citing privacy issues.
Bank Leumi's board of directors is due to convene on Sunday to approve the summoning of the general shareholders meeting. If the High Court of Justice does not rule on the petition by Thursday April 29, the bank will have to postpone the general shareholders meeting, because it must give at least 35 days notice for it.
If the general shareholders meeting is postponed until after June 13, the state will lose part of its voting rights in Bank Leumi. The government currently owns 11.46% of the bank, and it has the voting rights to the 2.47% of the bank held by its employees. Altogether, the government has 14% voting rights, but the voting rights for the employees' shares expire on June 13.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 22, 2010
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