Wertheimers sell Galilee land for NIS 600m

Eitan Wertheimer  / Photo: Yossi Cohen
Eitan Wertheimer / Photo: Yossi Cohen

The Menivim REIT fund has bought three sites in the Tefen industrial zone and land and buildings in Nahariya.

Menivim - The New Reit (TASE: MNRT) real estate fund last Thursday reported that it had signed agreements to buy four industrial and office sites in northern Israel. Menivim will buy three sites in the Tefen industrial zone and another site in the Nahariya industrial zone with a total of 166 dunam (41.5 acres) and 82,500 square meters in built-up space for NIS 635 million, plus VAT. Menivim will also pay NIS 39 million for expenses on the deal and taxes.

Sources inform "Globes" that the seller is Old I, owned by the Wertheimer family, one of Israel's wealthiest families. The family is the former owner of the Iscar and Blades tech companies, which were sold to Berkshire Hathaway and Pratt & Whitney, respectively. According to the Registrar of Companies, Old I was founded in 1954. It acquired its name in 2006, when Berkshire Hathaway acquired Iscar. The Wertheimer is the sole shareholder in Old I; the company's directors are Stef Wertheimer, his daughter, Ruth, and his son, Eitan.

The sites in Tefen, which cover 115 dunam (28.75 acres), contains three different campuses: the Blades campus with nine buildings and 36,500 square meters of built-up space covering 80 dunam, all of which is leased to Blades Technology, a subsidiary of Pratt & Whitney; the Turbine Jet campus with three buildings and 15,000 square meters of built-up space covering 25 dunam (6.25 acres), leased to Turbine Jet, a subsidiary of Blades Technology; and the Techjet Aerofoils site with two buildings and 7,000 square meters of built-up space covering ten dunam (2.5 acres), leased to Techject Aerofoils, a company jointly owned by Blades Technology and Rolls Royce. These sites include additional construction rights at ground level estimated at 11,000 square meters at this stage.

The site in Nahariya has six buildings and auxiliary buildings and 24,000 square meters of built-up space covering 51 dunam (12.75 acres). This site is also leased to Blades Technology, and includes 4,000 square meters of extra construction rights at ground level at this stage.

Menivim said that the areas are leased to good and very financially sound tenants in the field of blades technology for airplanes. The leases with the tenants are index-linked for 9.5 years, until June 2029. Most of the buildings are of good quality for industry and storage, and are fully maintained by the tenants at an extremely high level. The buildings, which are used for production, include many investments made over the years.

303rd place on the list of billionaires

The Wertheimer family became one of the wealthiest in Israel following the sale of its industrial empire, founded as a small family plant in Nahariya in the 1950s. Over the years, it became one of the world's leading companies in the production of hard metal cutting tools. Iscar's shares were sold in two stages to Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company of Warren Buffett. Berkshire Hathaway acquired 80% of the company for $4 billion in 2006, and the remaining 20% for $2 billion seven years later, the latter deal reflected a $10 billion valuation for the company. Forbes currently estimates the family's wealth at $5.7 billion, putting it in 303rd place among the list of global billionaires.

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 12, 2020

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2020

Eitan Wertheimer  / Photo: Yossi Cohen
Eitan Wertheimer / Photo: Yossi Cohen
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