Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd. (TASE: CLIS) has notified the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) that at the most recent board of directors meeting a decision was taken to consider offering regular shares to the public, at a discount of 7% on the market price. As far as is known, Clal Insurance will sell shares worth NIS 500 million.
Market sources believe that behind this move is the desire to dilute the holdings of Israeli real estate businessman Alfred Akirov, who has a 15% stake in Clal Insurance. Akirov, who has declared his intentions to buy control of Clal Insurance by raising his stake in the company to 30%, and sought a permit to from the Commissioner of Capital Markets, Insurance and Savings Dr. Moshe Bareket to control Clal, has sour relations with the insurance company's management.
Akirov would need to invest NIS 75 million in the planned public offering to maintain his 15% stake in Clal Insurance.
Akirov described the decision to sell shares at a 7% discount as "idiotic."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 11, 2022.
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