The opening plenum of the second day of the "Globes" 2012 Israel Business Conference was packed. First, "Globes" editor-in-chief Hagai Golan announced the "Globes" Person of the Year, Shlomo Eliahu, and asked him about his decision to acquire Migdal Insurance and Financial Holdings Ltd. (TASE: MGDL). "The seller wanted to sell on the spot. My option was either to buy or to fiddle and do nothing. I decided to buy and there was a deal," said Eliahu.
Wouldn’t it have been better to wait, and maybe buy it at a cheaper price?
"The market is smarter than anything else. Smarter than me. The market responded by boosting the price by 40% since the deal was closed. I am pleased that I did this. May God give me a little health, and you'll see what will emerge from what I bought."
You once wanted to acquire Bank Leumi. Did you miss out?
"I thank God who did the reckoning better than me. He decided that I would get something bigger than Bank Leumi."
Aren't you worried about entering such a deal at your age?
"There is no concern. I love the country, I live here for better or worse. My fate is derived from the country. The best thing is to do what a man knows, and that's what I did."
You're a man with high social awareness. An insurance company is not a philanthropic organization.
"There's no connection. An insurance company is a regulated enterprise, a money manager. The social issue pains and bothers me because of my past. Why have Israelis, exemplary children, been sentenced to a country that does not care to give them a piece of land? To build a home? This is a political question. I call on the prime minister to establish a committee to decide who is eligible. We have land; it's not the price, it's not the budget or the deficit. I cannot accept that a family which raises exemplary children who serve in the army - that I should export tham to the rest of the world? Who will be here in 30 years?"
What's the solution?
"We have a lot of land. In two years, I'll build you hundreds of thousands of homes at a construction cost of $1,000 per square meter. $20,000 for a young couple, an 80% mortgage, and you'll have a reasonable home for a family."
So why not do it?
"If I am worthy to be Person of the Year, give me the credit to do it. The question is political and the answer is quite simple. Everything I have has no value if the country is not sound. We'll have a problem in 20-30 years. We're exporting out best children. Why?! There is no basis of personal capital; it's not a disease. This is the country's real problem, irrespective of war and peace. I really hope that there will be a political upheaval in two months. The people should demand that every child raised here who serves in the army should have a home."
Person of the Year is an unstable title. Aren't you afraid?
"I'm never down, there's no such situation. I always look up."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 10, 2012
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2012