Kanfei Nesharim Aviation, the company through which Eli Rozenberg holds a controlling stake in El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (TASE: ELAL) is preparing to replace the board of directors. The new controlling shareholder, who acquired a 42.88% stake in the financially troubled airline in last week's $150 million public offering on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), has instructed the senior executives in Kanfei Nesharim to draw up a list of suitable candidates for the new board with experience in finance, law, security, and aviation.
Kanfei Nesharim hopes to appoint the new board members the moment that he becomes the official controlling shareholder - a process that requires approval from government ministers, according to the terms of the state's golden share in the airline. The identity of one new soon-to-be board member is already known - Jason Greenblatt the former US envoy to the Middle East.
El Al chairman Yehuda Levy was only recently appointed after Eli Defes stepped down from the job. Levy himself will soon be required to step down and after the new board is appointed, the search for a new CEO will begin to replace Gonen Usishkin.
Meanwhile Rozenberg has sent a letter through his lawyer Adv. Adi Zaltzman of Shibolet & Co. to Levy, Usishkin and El Al legal advisor Dan Fogelman setting out what he expects of them. The tone of the letter continues the air of suspicion that characterized the acrimonious exchanges between El Al's board and Rozenberg over the past weeks.
Zaltzman asks that the money injected into El Al's coffers following the public offering will be used in a "responsible and well thought out way and in regular business procedures without making payments to those who are no longer the controlling shareholders in El Al or those acting for them or making payments and/or creating expenditures that are not necessary until control is transferred in practice." The letter adds that this is doubly important, 'bearing in mind the situation of El Al and that as is known from its financial reports it is in practice insolvent and in the opinion of the auditors there was attached remarks that there is major doubt hanging over the company as a 'going concern.'"
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on September 23, 2020
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