Ted Arison has been trying to recruit Goldman Sachs and George Soros to the group he heads which is competing for control of Bank Hapoalim. Goldman Sachs and Soros were partners in a group which competed in the previous tender for Bank Hapoalim, along with Arison and Claridge, but, as will be recalled, they withdrew from that tender.
In the current tender, Arison is competing at the head of a group which includes, among others, Claridge, the Dankner group, the Hyperion fund of the USA, and Len Abramson. It is thought that Arison is attempting to strengthen the group, fearing that some of the partners may withdraw by the end of the tender process.
Insiders in the group denied that any partners are planning withdrawal. Nevertheless, they confirmed that there have been contacts with Soros and Goldman Sachs, but, according to them, "there is no real progress at this stage."
It is believed that some of the partners are likely to withdraw following Examiner of Banks Zeev Abeles’s tightening of the regulations governing the amount of credit a partner in the controlling interest in a bank may take from that bank. According to the new regulations, the amount of credit which a bank may extend to partners in the controlling interest may not exceed 10% of the bank’s capital. Up to now, the limit was 25%.