Alon Group announced yesterday that the debt settlement in subsidiary Alon Blue Square had been completed and that all its shares had been transferred to Moti Ben-Moshe. Ben-Moshe paid NIS 120 million to Alon Group and the minority shareholders.
As part of the debt settlement, Ben-Moshe is injecting up to NIS 900 million into Alon Blue Square, in order to repay debts to the banks and bondholders, among other things through a NIS 550 million issue of new bonds. Yesterday, Ben-Moshe transferred NIS 300 million of the amount to which he has committed.
The talks on a debt settlement in Alon Blue Square began a year ago, and gathered momentum at the beginning of this year when retail chain Mega, which Alon Blue Square owned, went into receivership (it was subsequently sold to Yeinot Bittan) and Alon Blue Square declared itself insolvent.
A court hearing is set for Wednesday on the dispute between Alon Group (owned by Shraga Biran, David Wiessman, and the kibbutz movement) and the company's bondholders, who are owed NIS 1.8 billion. The bondholders are demanding that ownership of the company should be transferred to them, after the company failed to respond to their demand for immediate repayment of the entire debt. Attempts are being made to resolve the matter by arbitration.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 12, 2016
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