Another step on the road to the historic privatization of Israel Military Industries Ltd. (IMI): the information rooms disclosing sensitive financial information about the state of the company will be opened to the candidates for its acquisition, starting next Wednesday, at the order of the Government Companies Authority. The rooms are virtual information rooms that can be accessed with passwords given to representatives of the groups that recently began proceedings to acquire the company. Access to the information rooms will be subject to the signing of secrecy commitments by representatives of the groups.
12 groups and businessmen submitted requests six weeks ago to take part in the process for the acquisition of IMI. At the conclusion of initial financial checks by the Government Companies Authority, headed by Ori Yogev, and security checks by the Director of Security in the Ministry of Defense, only nine groups were allowed access to the information rooms at this stage. Two groups - one led by businessman Samy Katsav and one led by businessman Meir Shamir - combined and announced that they would compete together for the acquisition of IMI. Two other bidders have not yet completed the process: businessman Yuri Vinnik and US holding company Kanders IMI LLC, owned by businessman Oren Kanders. Sources involved in the process said that these two bidders have not yet completed the process constituting a condition for entering the information rooms.
The groups competing for the acquisition of IMI are Elbit Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: ESLT; TASE: ESLT); FIMI Opportunity Funds, headed by Ishay Davidi; Renco Group, owned by American-Jewish billionaire Ira Rennert, which is involved in defense industries around the world; Flextronics-controlled Invictus Holdings, a special purpose vehicle founded for the purpose of competing for the acquisition of IMI; Tara Horizon, owned by businessman Hezi Bezalel; US infrastructure company Coleridge Capital LLLP, which holds concessions for oil exploration in Israel; Shimon Ben Maimon's SBM Consulting, which provides security consultation services to enterprises; Armaz Group, owned by Yaron Mizrahi; and the joint Katsav-Shamir group.
The information rooms will be open to investors for three months, and later in the process, they will also be given access to information that includes classified data about the company's business, subject to the depositing of a NIS 6 million bank guarantee. At the same time, the Government Companies Authority and the Ministry of Defense will conduct more thorough checks into these investors. At the end of the process, the interested groups will submit their bids to acquire the company, accompanied by their estimate of its value.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 13, 2015
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2015