The trustees of supermarket chain Mega, Ehud Gindes, Gabi Trabelsi, and Amir Bartov, announced today that they had acceded to the request of the bidders for the chain that they should be allowed a few more days to complete the required procedures for submitting their bids. The new deadline for submitting bids is Tuesday, March 8.
Yesterday, the Lod District Court granted the Mega trustees' application for an investigation of the conduct of the chain's owners and managers. The trustees intend to summon for questioning several officers and shareholders in Mega, Blue Square Israel (BSI) Blue Square Real Estate, and the Alon group. Last week, the Mega trustees filed a very severe report on the conduct of the chain's owners and former managers.
The trustees did not specify whom they meant to summon for questioning, but it is already clear that among those summoned will be David Wiessman, one of the controlling shareholders and chairman of Alon Blue Square for most of its existence; Motti Keren, former CEO of Mega; financial officers at Alon Blue Square and those who planned the distribution of dividends in the group and the spin-off of Mega's real estate assets to a separate company. It is possible that the other controlling shareholder, Shraga Biran, will also be summoned, as well as Yitzhak Bader, the representative of the kibbutzim in Alon.
The trustees detailed three matters "requiring further examination and investigation": the spin-off of the real estate from the company and the payment of apparently exorbitant rents; management through "thin financing", putting the company and its employees at risk; and deficient corporate governance.
The trustees state in their report that they are considering adopting a derivative action already filed against Alon Blue Square for the distribution of a dividend in contravention of the rules, and that they intend to conduct a direct claim against Alon Blue Square, its controlling shareholders, and officers of the company, for the return of money taken from it unlawfully.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 3, 2016
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