Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI) and Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI) oppose the debt settlement and write-off proposed for bankrupt Israeli tycoon Eliezer Fishman. Yesterday, Adv. Joseph Benkel, the special court-appointed administrator for Eliezer Fishman's assets, submitted his debt arrangement proposal to the court, in which in a best-case scenario only NIS 400 million out of debts totaling more than NIS 1.7 billion would be repaid. The overall debts of Fishman, the former owner of "Globes," amount to more than NIS 4 billion.
Fishman's debt to Bank Hapoalim totals NIS 1.5 billion against which it has a lien on his shares in Yediot Ahronot and Home Center. In a terse statement Hapoalim said, "The arrangement does not express a proper effort to repay the debt to the bank."
Bank Leumi also says that it opposes the write-off. Leumi said, "A review is required of the amounts that can be collected from the Fishman family as part of the bankruptcy procedures against the amounts that can be collected as part of the heads of agreement."
Politicians have also been angered by the proposed "haircut." Zionist Union leadership candidate MK Amir Peretz said, "The public has good reason to be angered by this deal which is called a 'haircut.' Relinquishing NIS 1.3 billion is relinquishing the public's money at the expense of the public."
Peretz points out that Fishman is not the first Israeli tycoon to take advantage of capital market reforms over the past decade to give a haircut - others include Yitzhak Tshuva, Nochi Dankner and the late Motti Zisser.
Yesh Atid MK Haim Jelin said, 'Small businesses and households that are being weighed down by astronomical interest and collapsing beneath the burden will have to pay for the greedy conduct of Fishman and the other tycoons who put their personal benefit before everything else."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 5, 2017
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