Sources inform “Globes” that dozens of Clubmarket Marketing Chain’s branches are operating without a license, which is hampering the sale of the company’s controlling interest.
Lack of operating licenses for the retail chain’s branches along with the high cost of obtaining the required permits (especially after the Versailles wedding hall disaster), were apparently the main reason that negotiations for a transfer of ownership by Co-op Tzafon Metro, which controls the chain, to a group led by CPA Shlomo Ziv, were discontinued.
The investor group, which included Granit HaCarmel and Dan Dankner, was asked to pay $76 million for Co-op Tzafon Metro’s assets, including a 68% stake in Clubmarket Marketing Chain, and the full ownership of Hamashbir’s food marketing division and Neopharm. After negotiations were discontinued, Co-op Tzafon Metro’s owners began negotiating with businessman Hardof Wolf.
Clubmarket Marketing Division operates 147 branches. Company president and CEO Doron Kashuv dismissed the allegation that half the retail chain’s branches were operating without a license as “nonsense”. At the same time, he confirmed that at some branches “there is a licensing problem due to technical problems, some of which is related to various authorities, and whose settlement now takes longer than in the past.” Kashuv, who declined to specify the number of such branches, said that other retail chains were in a similar situation.
Clubmarket Marketing Chain is owned by Co-op Tzafon Metro and investment company Darban Investments, which is controlled by Eliezer Fishman. Eliezer Fishman is the controlling shareholder in “Globes”.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on 22 July, 2001