Shari Arison is continuing to sell her Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI) stake and since yesterday has no longer been a party at interest in the bank. Arison has sold shares to Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd. (TASE: CLIS) for NIS 336 million and reduced her holding from 5.6% to just 4.88% in the bank in which she was once the controlling shareholder.
The share sale proceedings follows Arison's decision in September 2018 to sell her holdings in Israel. She reached an agreement with the Bank of Israel by which Hapoalim would be turned into a bank without a controlling interest. Under the terms of the agreement, it was decided that Arison would be obliged to reduce her holding to less than 5%. The Bank of Israel set seven years to complete the process of selling the shares, which yesterday complied with the decision.
This latest sale was a relatively small tranche of shares. In her previous sale in September 2022, she sold 2.3% of the bank's shares for NIS 1.03 billion to a series of institutional bodies.
On this occasion, unlike last time, Arison's decision to wait and sell each time a package of shares paid off less. The sale carried out yesterday was at a share price of NIS 33.36, per share while in September 2022 it was carried out at a price of NIS 33.77 per share (at that time a discount of only about 1% on the market price). This time, the sale was made according to the rate at which the bank's stock closed yesterday. From Arison's point of view, this is an excellent deal because in the first two tranches the buyers received a large discount on the price. In November 2018, for example, the first share sale was closed at a 6% discount on the market price, and the second, in April 2021, at a 5% discount.
Following yesterday's sale, Arison has sold Hapoalim shares worth NIS 5.7 billion.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on July 20, 2023.
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