The heavy pressure on Nochi Dankner, the controlling shareholder of IDB Holding Corp. Ltd. (TASE:IDBH) by the company's bondholders has worked. The company's management and the bondholders' representatives - Harel Insurance Investments and Financial Services Ltd. (TASE: HARL), Excellence Investments Ltd. (TASE: EXCE), and Gilad Pension Fund - will renew talks on a debt settlement for IDB. Sources inform ''Globes'' that Dankner will make an improved offer to the bondholders, and the renewal of the talks is expected following IDB's acceptance of the demands of the bondholders' representatives that it must meet of series of conditions before talks could start again.
Last week, IDB bondholders' representatives suspended the talks on a debt settlement, after IDB announced that its parent company, Ganden Holdings Ltd., was unilaterally extending the exercise period of the option given to Eduardo Elsztain to invest in it. The bondholders' representatives also agreed to an initiative by the representatives of the bondholders of IDB Holding's subsidiary IDB Development Corporation - Psagot Investment House Ltd., The Phoenix Holdings Ltd. (TASE: PHOE1;PHOE5), and York Capital Management - to cooperate to compel a combined debt settlement for both companies, which would result in the bondholders, led by York Capital, taking control of the company.
York Capital's Israeli representative Jeremy Black is leading this measure. York Capital has acquired 20% of IDB Development's bonds with a par value of NIS 800 million.
IDB yesterday declined to confirm whether an improved offer for a debt settlement for IDB Holding has been made. The company said, "IDB welcomes the return to the negotiating table. It intends to complete the negotiations and reach a fair settlement with the bondholders of IDB Holding. In this context, the company will provide the trustees with all the information they need to be able to make a considered and informed decision."
In the previous offer for a debt settlement, made to the bondholders' representatives on January 23, IDB Holding offered a NIS 600 million write-off on its bond debt (which totals NIS 1.8 billion).
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 11, 2013
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2013