Tel Aviv District Court president Judge Eitan Orenstein decided today to cancel the ruling allowing the debt arrangement in Africa-Israel Investments Ltd. (TASE:AFIL), under which Moti Ben-Moshe was to have bought the company.
Following the decision, handed down almost three years after negotiations on a second debt arrangement in Africa-Israel (formerly controlled by Lev Leviev) began, the company and its bondholders can now examine other offers for investment in the company or its assets, primarily the offer by the Big Mega Or group and additional entities to buy the controlling interest in subsidiary Africa-Israel Properties for NIS 1.37 billion.
Ben-Moshe's legal representative tried to persuade Orenstein to leave the ruling in force, but the bondholders opposed the request. Since it was agreed that the change that Ben-Moshe sought to introduce into the financial side of the arrangement was material and would require renewed approval by the bondholders, Judge Orenstein ruled that the arrangement was void.
Today's hearing also dealt with the application by the Africa-Israel bondholders to foreclose on the NIS 100 million deposit that companies in Ben-Moshe's group deposited to guarantee the settlement. Orenstein proposed to the parties that they should go to arbitration on the matter, and gave them until Sunday to give him their response. He said that if the response was negative, he would decide the matter in an expedited proceeding.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on February 18, 2019
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