Estimates: The price factor in each of the six competitors' offers will
have central significance in determination of the successful bid.
General Manager of First International Bank, Shlomo Petrokovski, has
invested privately in the Dolphin Group (headed by the owners of
Cellcom), which is competing in the tender for the license for
international phone calls, and will own 5% of the corporation, if
Dolphin's bid is successful. Petrokovski has close ties with the Safra
Brothers, the banks' owners, who hold 26% of the corporation. The group
did not intend to officially announce Petrokovski's investment, rather an
anonymous Israeli investor.
Tomorrow the appointment of General Manager of the Second Television
Authority Nachman Shai as the group's director will be announced.
Distinguished sources in the communications industry believe that
the price factor in the bids will be the dominant component determining
the two successful bids in the tender. Most of them believe that the
central reason is the fact that all six of the competing corporations
are considered serious and the difference in the bids in other scoring
areas will be negligible.
According to the tender's conditions, the committee has been
budgeted nine months to make a decision. Senior officials in the
Ministry of Communications estimate that the results will be published
by the end of April