Gazit Inc. (TASE: GZIT), controlled by chairman Chaim Katzman and vice chairman Dori Segal, has made a tactical withdrawal in its battle for control of geothermal energy company Ormat Industries Ltd. (TASE: ORMT), controlled by CEO Yehudit Bronicki and her husband, chairman and CTO Yehuda Bronicki. Gazit today withdrew its demand for a special general shareholders meeting to appoint Yuval Yanai and Gad Arbel as external directors at Ormat.
The special general shareholders meeting had been scheduled for last Wednesday Gazit's position paper published prior to the meeting stated that Ormat's current external directors should not be reelected and Gazit submitted its own nominees: Yanai, the CFO of Given Imaging Ltd. (Nasdaq: GIVN; TASE: GIVN); and Arbel, a director at Israel Discount Bank (TASE: DSCT) and former Capital Markets, Insurance and Savings Supervisor at the Ministry of Finance during the 1990s.
Ormat cancelled the shareholders meeting days before it was due to be held and announced that the company's two external directors, Zvi Tropp and Azriel Gonen, had withdrawn their candidacies.
Gazit owns 15% of Ormat, while Bronicki Investment Ltd. owns 35.1%. Ormat's share price fell 0.7% by midday to NIS 29.02, giving a market cap of NIS 3.47 billion, and Gazit's share price fell 0.9% to NIS 72.68, giving a market cap of NIS 1.5 billion.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 26, 2010
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2010