Apax Partners closed the acquisition of the controlling interest in Psagot Investment House Ltd. from York Capital Management LLC on Friday afternoon for NIS 2.75 billion. The price is the basically the same as the parties had agreed before the negotiations fell apart, and recently renewed.
Apax Israel CEO Zehavit Cohen agreed to the deal after Psagot reached a plea bargain with the Tel Aviv Prosecutor Office (Taxes and Economics) and the Israel Securities Authority on Thursday night. Apax will take over Psagot this week.
Last week, Apax held advanced negotiations with the Tel Aviv Prosecutor Office, in collaboration with the Securities Authority, for a plea bargain to be reached in the Psagot affair. York was not involved in these negotiations, but they were held with its knowledge and apparent silent acquiescence by York executives in New York.
Under the plea bargain, which "Globes" outlined several weeks ago, Psagot will pay a fine of NIS 150 million in exchange for no indictment being filed against it.
York Management's Israeli representative Jeremy Blank strongly denied in the two days before the deal that any negotiations with Apax were taking place. He claimed that Cohen had first approached him on Thursday night. "Zehavit called me last night, and asked me to implement the deal," he said.
To close the deal after the negotiations were broken off last week, Cohen bypassed Blank because their relations were on the rocks and they would not talk to each other. Cohen concluded that Blank's conduct and stubbornness were obstacles to a deal for Psagot, so she approached York Capital's executives in New York.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 31, 2010
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