Three bidders submitted offers to buy the Mega supermarket chain before the deadline of 13:30 on Friday last week: Rami Levy, a consortium headed former minister of industry, trade and labor Shalom Simhon, and Sheva brothers Agricultural Products Marketing Ltd. The trustess postponed their deadline four times.
The Mega trustees published the following statement: "Several bids have been submitted to buy the Mega chain. The trustees are examining the bids and next week will conduct negotiations with the relevant bidders, in order to achieve the best possible purchase agreement for the benefit of Mega, its workers, its suppliers, and its creditors in general."
The consortium led by Simhon and Rabbi Lior Gabay, CEO of the Neot Margalit day care centers, which is advised by former Antitrust Authority chief economist Dr. Shlomi Frizet, plans to operate Mega through the thirteen small retail chains that have joined the consortium, enabling them to expand their businesses and provide better competition in the retail market. Simhon's bid is NIS 226 million, conditional upon a reduction in the rents for Mega's branches. In effect, the bid is NIS 160 million, plus another NIS 66 million subject to a rent reduction for 37 branches, according to an assessor's estimate.
"I believe that if the trustees don't play prestige games and if there are no unnecessary procedures then we take the auction. The rents on the chain's branches cannot remain as they have been up to now. Our bid is the best on the table - there is none better. This is the only bid to which the Antitrust Commissioner will not object," Simhon said.
Rami Levy wants to buy all Mega's 127 branches, as te trustees require, and to operate them as a company separate from Rami Levy Chain Stores Hashikma Marketing 2006 Ltd. (TASE:RMLI) which he controls. Levy has declared in a notification to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange that his company intends to absorb Mega's employees and even to hire 1,000-2,000 additional workers in order to boost sales per square meter at the branches. Hi sbid is believed to be NIS 150 million.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 13, 2016
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