The trustees for the bonds of Africa-Israel Investments Ltd. (TASE:AFIL) have postponed the vote on the company's future for the fourth time in a week as a result of improvements in the bidders' offers for acquiring the company. As of web posting, assuming that no bidders want to further improve their bids, the electronic voting is due to be finished today, while written proxies can be submitted this evening.
Yesterday, it was Naty Saidoff's turn to improve his bid, after Moti Ben-Moshe, his competitor, did so the previous day. Saidoff offered the bondholders NIS 100 million more in three-year no-interest bonds. After three years, they will be able to choose whether to redeem them through conversion to shares or cash. A day earlier, he promised that if the NIS 1.45 billion in bonds remaining in the bondholders' hands was not repaid within a year, the bondholders would be paid compensation of NIS 70 million in cash.
Bondholders' accountant: Saidoff bid is better
According to Isaac Idan, CPA from the Baker Tilly accounting firm, who is the economic advisor to the bondholders' representatives, the updated package offered by Saidoff reflects a nominal value of NIS 2.359-2.429 billion for the bondholders, or NIS 2.334-2.336 billion in economic value. Idan says that this is higher than the value of the package offered by Ben-Moshe in each of his three alternatives, which he improved yesterday. According to Idan, the nominal value of the alternatives offered by Ben-Moshe is now NIS 2.319-2.336 billion, while their economic value is NIS 2.302-2.323 billion. Ben-Moshe, of course, has the option of again increasing his bid, but as of web posting, he had not done so. According to one of Saidoff's advisors in Israel, the recent additions received from him by the bondholders are his knockout blow in his contest with Ben-Moshe. Only late tonight, of course, will it be known whether the bondholders will give a majority of votes for Saidoff's bid. It already completely clear, however, that even if his bid is accepted, his victory will be far more expensive than he planned.
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on December 20, 2017
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2017