The debt of private equity fund Markstone Capital Group continues to grow. Sources inform ''Globes'' that Phenomenal Holdings, through which Markstone, run by Ron Lubash and Amir Kess, own 23.2% of Psagot Investment House Ltd., has failed to meet a NIS 15 million principal and interest payment to its bondholders.
So far as is known, the reason that Phenomenal Holdings failed to meet the bond payment, which was due on February 1, was that Psagot has stopped distributing dividends, on which Markstone depends to service its debt. According to the bond's deed of trust, Phenomenal Holdings has the option of postponing payment by 30 days, but it has not yet announced its intention of doing so.
Markstone controls Phenomenal Holdings through Amfic, a company with a debt of NIS 400 million, and which some banks are handling through their special credit departments. The bond in question is a private bond issued in 2007 to a limited number of investment institutions in the amount of NIS 107 million. There is no collateral.
The residual of the debt is currently NIS 90 million. The bond was issued by Prisma Investment House, which collapsed in 2009 under the weight of its own debt, two years after Markstone established it at an investment of NIS 2 billion.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 3, 2014
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