Israeli businessman Gad Zeevi and a consortium of investors are in talks to acquire Gadot Group at a company valuation of $550 million. Zeevi has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) to buy the company, even though Gadot's owners, Ariel Halperin's Tene Investment Funds (60%) and the LBH Group led by Value Base, are simultaneously in talks with other parties from abroad, some of whom are interested in the company at higher valuations. Gadot's owners are represented by US investment bank Jefferies.
Tene, which specializes in investments in industrial sectors and kibbutz companies, is especially eager to move forward with the sale, because it invested in Gadot over a decade ago, which is a long period of time for an investment by a private equity fund.
Tene acquired Gadot Group - then called Gadot Tankers - from a receiver for $73.5 million. Yishay Davidi's FIMI Opportunity Funds bid $1 million higher than Tene, according to a report in "Globes" at the time, but ultimately failed to acquire Gadot.
A partner in Haifa Port
The Gadot Group, led by the new owners, entered as a partner in Haifa Port in 2022. In the tender for the privatization of the port that year, Gadot won as a junior partner to India’s Adani Group, and together they agreed to NIS 4.2 billion for the port.
Investments in energy, retail and real estate
Gad Zeevi has been out of the headlines in recent years. In April 2025, the Dunietz Elad real estate company acquired his remaining share in a residential construction project in Haifa for NIS 80 million.
Zeevi (86), born on Kibbutz Masada, has been linked to some of the biggest deals in the economy in the past - including in the fields of energy, retail and real estate, and for a short time he even owned the Beitar Jerusalem football team.
Full acquittal in Bezeq Case
In 1999, Zeevi made headlines after purchasing shares in Bezeq from UK company Cable & Wireless, after borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars from local banks, and he planned to compete for a controlling stake in the communications company. Two years after making the investment, Zeevi had difficulty meeting interest payments to the banks, and they seized the shares he had purchased and appointed a receiver for them.
At the same time, an indictment was filed against Zeevi and others regarding events in the deal. The state accused Zeevi and businessman Michael Cherney of fraud, by planning to hide Cherney's share in the Bezeq deal. Zeevi was fully acquitted in 2015 of any criminal endeavor.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on August 6, 2026.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2026.