Four months after Avraham Nanikashvili was forced to sell 80% of the shares in Triple M, which holds 84% of the Israel Power Management (IPM) power station project in Be'er Tuvia, to Global Power, controlled by chairman Ehud Ben-Shach and CEO Nissan Caspi for $85-90 million, he is selling his option to buy back 29% of Triple M's shares. The purchasers, who will pay $10 million in equal shares, are Alon Holdings Blue Square - Israel Ltd. (NYSE: BSI; TASE: BSI) controlling shareholders Moti-Ben Moshe (through private company Extra Holdings) and Yitzhak Mirilashvili (through infrastructure fund Yesodot). The exercise price is $32-42 million, depending on when the option is exercised.
The power station, which will produce 430 megawatts using combined cycle technology, will receive financial coverage from Deutsche Bank. Construction is expected to cost $400 million. Siemens will supply the turbine, and the power station is slated to buy natural gas from the Leviathan reservoir. Nanikashvili and his partner, Timor Ben-Yehuda, had to sell their holdings in the power station after Nanikashvili was indicted in the alleged bribery affair involving the late Binyamin Ben-Eliezer. In addition to Global Power, former Israel Securities Authority chairman Moshe Tery and former Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) (TASE: ELEC.B22) chairman Dr. Moti Fridman hold 20% of Triple M.
The Nanikashvilli-Global Power deal originally aroused opposition by Fridman and Tery, but the opposition was removed after Leumi Partners Ltd. and the Noy Infrastructure and Energy Investment Fund announced last November that they were combining with Global Power, and would buy 20% of Triple M's shares, with an option to double their holding.
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on March 26, 2017
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