Clal Finance Ltd. (TASE:CLFN) has sold its remaining stake in foreign exchange broker AVA Financial Ltd. to its founders, CEO Emanuel Kronitz and chief marketing officer Negev Nosatzki.
In October 2009, Clal Finance sold 16.5% of its holding in AVA, half its stake at the time, to Kronitz and Nosatzki, and gave them a one-year option to buy the remaining 16.5%. Today, they exercised it.
Kronitz and Nosatzki will pay Clal Finance $6.5 million (NIS 25 million) for the shares. The strike price was revised downward from the $7.49 million set in the original deal in parallel with bringing forward the exercise date of the option.
Clal Finance estimates a net capital gain of NIS 19 million on the sale, which it will report in its financial report for the second quarter of 2010.
The sale of AVA is part of the strategy of Clal Finance CEO Tal Raz, who took up his post in September 2009, to refocus the investment house on its core businesses of brokerage services, mutual fund and investment portfolio management.
Nochi Dankner's IDB Holding Corp. Ltd. (TASE:IDBH) unit Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd. (TASE: CLIS) owns 81.6% of Clal Finance. Clal Finance's share price rose 2.1% by mid-afternoon to NIS 2.98, giving a market cap of NIS 322 million.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 6, 2010
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