Yesterday, Rani Zim sold his entire 65.7% stake in Group Psagot for Finance and Investments (TASE: GPST) , plus tradable options, to the company’s former CEO Yaniv Bender. Bender will pay NIS 40 million in cash on the completion of the deal, and will then hold 73% of Group Psagot, which has become a shell company after the sale of its businesses.
Bender was CEO of Group Psagot for eighteen months under Zim as controlling shareholder, until the end of 2023.
Zim bought Psagot’s mutual funds and portfolio management business three years ago, but the move did not go well. The company’s share price plummeted, and most of its activity was recently sold to competitors The Phoenix Holdings and IBI Investment House. During the period, Psagot lost more than 80% of its value, and its market cap before the current deal was under NIS 60 million.
The deal is subject to preconditions, including completion of the sale of sub-subsidiary Psagot Securities and repayment of the company’s series C bonds, and the cancellation of all licenses for providing credit and financial asset services in the company and its subsidiaries.
Psagot recently announced the signing of a binding MOU for the sale of its holdings in Psagot Securities and the Psagot brand to Carmel Credit for NIS 73.5 million, subject to approval by the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
After completion of the sale of Psagot Securities, the Psagot group will change its name, and will be a company with a substantial cash balance that is owed debts by third parties and has no debt of its own.
Zim himself is coping with personal debts amounting to hundreds of millions of shekels, caused by, among other things, the acquisition of Psagot in 2021 for NIS 405 million. To cover his debts, he has sold several assets in the past few months, among them 9% of the shares in real estate company Rani Zim Shopping Centers.