Eli Rozenberg, who has submitted a bid to buy El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (TASE: ELAL), is demanding that the company fix a meeting "immediately and urgently" between him and the board of directors, "In order to move forward with the immediate injection of NIS 260 million," according to the letter sent by Rozenberg's attorneys Advs. Adi Zaltzman and Joseph Benkel of the Shibolet law firm to El Al's legal representative Adv. Dori Klagsbald.
The letter charges that each member of the board of directors has a personal obligation, "To make sure that all the required actions are taken to save the company," and points out that, "the authorized people in the State of Israel have approved our client to be the controlling shareholder of El Al. Of course the permit (granted to Rozenberg by the Government Companies Authority) puts an end to all other claims and attempts to cast doubt on the fact that our client is the investor, attempts which are relying only on gossip and groundless theories."
Another important point made in the letter is that the buyer has changed the deadline for his offer, which was due to expire at the end of August, and has now been extended until whenever approval is received for the deal from the board of directors. Rozenberg's attorney wrote, "Our client's offer is at a higher price than the government plan and will allow the injection of money at an earlier date than the date on which the money would be received from the offering that the board of directors is committed to in the State plan."
According to the state plan, El Al is due to complete the public offering process by the end of this month and only then can it receive bank loans of $250 million with state guarantees for 75% of the amount. According to the conditions set by the Ministry of Finance, the further El Al progresses towards the public offering, the more money it can gradually withdraw from the NIS 230 million surplus capital in the airline's compensation fund.
Eli Rozenberg, 30, is the son of New York-based businessman Kenny Rozenberg who owns the Centers Health Care US national network of nursing homes.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on August 5, 2020 © Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2020