Israeli investors have submitted a request to the Government Companies Authority for information about the Israel Military Industries Ltd. (IMI) privatization tender. IMI's value is estimated at NIS 1.5-2 billion. The deadline for requests to participate in the tender is tomorrow.
The banking entities advising the process expect 4-5 Israeli and foreign groups to express interest in acquiring the company, including industrial entrepreneurs and financial entities. Leumi Partners Ltd. and US bank Stifel are providing advice in the sale. The Government Companies Authority and IMI have conducted a roadshow in recent weeks for investors in Israel and overseas.
Government Companies Authority director Ori Yogev and IMI CEO Avi Felder and chairman Maj.-Gen. (res.) Udi Adam are leading the sale. In the next stage, those interested will undergo appropriate economic strength and economic and managerial capability assessments. The honesty and integrity of the parties at interest will be examined, and the absence of a conflict of interests between their business and affairs and those of Israel will be verified, including their security classification.
In July, those interested are slated to undergo the tests for entering the information rooms, in which commercial information about the company and relevant information about the costs of the company's move to southern Israel, the government aid that the company will receive for the move, and other agreements between the company and the state will be revealed. The price bids will be submitted in September after further examinations are made, subject to a NIS 35 million deposit.
IMI posted a NIS 2.5 billion net loss in 2014, due to one-time costs for retirement of 1,000 of its workers during the year. Under an agreement between the Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel), the IMI workers committee, and the state, another 300 workers will retire from the company, which currently has 2,400 employees. The process of moving to Ramat Beka in the Negev and vacating the company's land in central Israel is scheduled for completion by 2022 according to a November 2013 cabinet decision on the company's privatization.
The cabinet also decided that the company to be sold would be a new company, IMI Systems, to which IMI's business activity would be transferred. The current IMI, which will remain a shell company, will continue to handle vacating and cleaning the polluted land in central Israel, lawsuits, and the company's past debts. IMI's classified business will be transferred to another new government company, named Tomer.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 27, 2015
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2015