Did French National Assembly member Meyer Habib, a confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, try to influence Netanyahu as part of the lobbying campaign by Michael Golan to obtain concessions from the Ministry of Communications for Golan Telecom Ltd.? Sources inform "Globes" that Habib was asked to try to help Golan, who declined to respond to an inquiry from "Globes" on the subject, merely saying that these matters were important and on a large scale, and should not be discussed.
Habib was active in French Jewish organization Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France (CRIF). He is considered close to Netanyahu, whom he has helped on more than a few occasions in the organizing of meetings in France. He was also mentioned as having helped in Netanyahu's election campaigns. A number of market sources have reported that Golan has tried to meet with Netanyahu in recent weeks (several other communications companies shareholders have met with him, but it is not clear whether this meeting actually occurred).
Golan wants the Ministry of Communications to exempt him from investing hundreds of millions of shekels, as his communications license obligates him to do, and to refrain from taking legal measures against him for regularly violating the license terms on a number of issues. In particular, without obtaining approval and before obtaining a permit from the Ministry of Communications for combining networks, Golan disassembled the cellular network he had begun building. Golan's clear violation of the terms of his license were forgiven and excused as a result of the Ministry of Communication's lax enforcement policy.
Over the past two months, since Shlomo Filber became Ministry of Communications director general, Filber has been standing up to Golan, who has been given ordinary, not special, treatment by the ministry. The entire new situation that has been created, including the rise in the share prices of the veteran communications companies, which has made it less worthwhile for Golan to acquire a veteran operator, and the fact that the switching of customer to the new players in the market has slowed to a trickle, is probably what has led Golan to put his company up for sale.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 27, 2015
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