UBP Tel Aviv representative Albert Ben-Avi told "Globes" today that the Recanati and de Picciotto families signed on Tuesday an MOU for merging the DBTC and UBP banks. It was agreed in principal that Oudi Recanati, currently active chairman of DBTC, would be appointed a director of the merged bank.
Ben-Avi also said that DBTC CEO Joseph Assaraf, an expatriate Israeli, will also stay in the merged bank in an executive position. No decision has been reached regarding the two banks' Israeli offices (DBTC's Israeli office is managed by Elhanan Harel). It is believed the two offices will be merged.
At the same time, a senior banking source last night predicted that the merger would be eventually be closed as a sale by Recanati of DBTC to UBP for $400-500 million. The source said the Recanati family had searched around the world last year among banks with similar activity for a buyer for DBTC, and had conducted initial contacts with a number of parties in the matter.
This assessment does not contradict Ben-Avi's statements, since the bank's board of director is not reserved to owners. Since being founded by Edgar de Picciotto in 1969, UBP has absorbed a series of local Swiss banks. All the mergers were accomplished by acquiring the full share capital of the merged banks for cash payments to the owners.
If the Recanatis sell the bank, Oudi Recanati, who liquidated his business in Israel a year ago, when he sold his share of the IDB concern, will be left without any business activity. On the other hand, he will have hundreds of millions of dollars in cash, which will enable him to enter new businesses.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on February 7, 2002