Apax Partners managing director Zehavit Cohen has started looking for a new chairman and a new CEO for investment house Psagot to replace Arik Steinberg and Roy Vermus. It is believed that within three months of the transfer of control to Apax, the two will leave their posts. Cohen has stepped up the search for new managers, because of the progress achieved in the past few days in the negotiations between Apax and York Capital on the Psagot deal.
York's representative in Israel, Jeremy Blank, has expressed readiness to compromise, and to reduce the price for Psagot. It is estimated that the deal will close in the next few days, and in any event by the end of the Sukkot holiday (September 28). The reduction being discussed is 7-10%, or NIS 160-230 million, and a value of NIS 2.8-2.9 billion for Psagot. Sources close to York presented a determined stance, whereby unless there is agreement with Cohen by September 28 on the level of the discount, the deal will be cancelled. "It's not the Neverending Story," the sources said. Cohen declined to comment.
One of the main tasks of the new CEO at Psagot will be to preserve the firm's management backbone, much of which consists of people strongly identified with Vermus managers he groomed and promoted in the past few years.
If the value of Psagot is reduced for the purposes of the deal, this will cut by about 20% the value of the options that senior Psagot managers have received in the past, and will now be a sale bonus.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 12, 2010
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