Azrieli Group raised NIS 1.72 billion in yesterday's institutional tender of its IPO, well below the hoped for NIS 2.2 billion in the tender, and total of NIS 2.5 billion for the offering as a whole.
The underwriters today continued their efforts to persuade institutional investors to increase their orders in an effort to get Azrieli Group into the Tel Aviv 100 Index. As things stand now, the company must raise at least NIS 180 million in the public tender on Sunday to meet the public holding threshold criterion to enter the index
Azrieli Group CFO Yuval Bronstein told "Globes" today, "If Azrieli Group does not enter the Tel Aviv 100 Index, we'll cancel the IPO."
According to figures obtained by "Globes" Amitim (the eight nationalized old pension funds) placed more than NIS 400 million in orders in the tender, and Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd. (TASE: CLIS) placed NIS 300 million. Other institutional investors ordered less than NIS 200 million each.
70 institutional investors participated in the offering, almost none of them foreign institutions.
Azrieli Group originally planned to raise NIS 2.5 billion at a valuation of NIS 10 billion, after money. On Sunday, Azrieli Group cut the valuation of the offering by NIS 600 million to NIS 7.5 billion, before money, asking NIS 83.25 per share, reflecting a capital equal to the company's valuation, but even this was not enough to pull in orders.
David Azrieli (88), currently owns 40% of Azrieli Group, and each of his five children own 15%. The company is one of Israel's largest real estate companies, owning eleven malls and eight skyscrapers, including the Azrieli Center and Azrieli Towers in Tel Aviv. It also owns 61% of Granite Hacarmel Investments Ltd. (TASE: GRNT) (the owner of Sonol Israel Ltd. and other manufacturing and energy interests), 4.8% of Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI) and 20% of its credit card company Leumi Card Ltd.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 1, 2010
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