"After everything was sewn up and agreement was reached with the employees, they came demanding changes. We do not think this is fair and we do not like to do business this way". This statement came today, Wednesday, from Ted Arison, head of the group that purchased control in Bank Hapoalim, at an initial encounter with the press.
Arison attacked the proposals of the Knesset Finance Committee for making changes in the sale agreement so as to anchor employees’ rights. These rights, according to Arison, were anchored in preliminary agreements reached with the employees, and, in any event, the group is not, for the present, planning to lay off workers. "We bought the enterprise because we fell in love with it; and the enterprise is the people who work in it. We are not the kind who buy enterprises only to destroy them".
Arison, however, did not hint that the prolonged Finance Committee debate was causing him and his partners any second thoughts about buying Bank Hapoalim. "After working in Israel for seven years", he stated, "one does not get disappointed. That is part of the special quirk attached to doing business in Israel".
Arison criticised the functioning of Israeli banks on the international plane, saying that they focus on Diaspora Jewry only, and not on real banking. He said he intends developing that field of activity in Bank Hapoalim. Arison had enthusiastic praise for bank manager Amiram Sivan, whom he described as "the best banker in Israel, perhaps the best in the world". His group, he said, would take steps to keep Sivan in the bank "and we shall also use money to compel him".
At the press conference, Arison officially revealed that he had contracted throat cancer, but said he had fully recovered, and sought to show hospital papers attesting to that fact. He revealed that his shares in Bank Hapoalim will be inherited by Arison Investments, his investment arm in Israel, managed by Shlomo Nehama. His son, Mickey, does not have a majority in this company.
Arison said he is not sure his son will wish to be involved in the bank’s business, or "that I will want him to be here". In any event, Mickey Arison will not make decisions in Arison Investments on his own. Arison’s daughter, Cheri, is also not to be involved in the bank’s business. Arison said "Shlomo Nehama is managing the company, and I do not want a member of my family giving him orders".