Another foreign private equity fund and foreign banks have also bought NIS 150-200 million worth of the struggling real estate company's bonds.
US private equity firm York Capital Management has reportedly acquired 15% of the bonds of Elbit Imaging Ltd. (Nasdaq: EMITF; TASE: EMIT), controlled by president and CEO Mordechay Zisser. Another foreign private equity fund and foreign banks have also bought NIS 150-200 million worth of the struggling real estate company's bonds. The purchases were made at sharp discounts on the bonds' market prices.
The bond purchase is York Capital's second major purchase in a troubled Israeli company in as many months. In October, it bought 20% of the bonds of IDB Development Corporation Ltd., controlled by Nochi Dankner. The bonds have a nominal value of NIS 800 million.
Elbit Imaging, which has a market cap of just $42.8 million (NIS 156 million), and its bond debt totals NIS 2.5 billion. Its bonds are traded at junk bond status with yields of hundreds of percent. Last month, Standard & Poor's Maalot Ltd. and Midroog Ltd. slashed their ratings for the company's bonds five grades to speculative investment grade. Earlier this week, the company admitted that it was in breach of the terms on a $64 million loan from Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI).
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 23, 2013
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