"The Israeli economy is one of the most concentrated in the Western world. Ten business groups control 160 public companies," Bank of Israel researcher Constantine Kosenco told “IDF Radio" (Galei Zahal) during a conference at the Social Economy Academy in Tel Aviv yesterday.
In April 2008, the Bank of Israel published a research paper by Kosenco, which claimed that in the preceding years, ten families controlled 30% of Israeli public companies, on the basis of market cap. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) was excluded from the study, because, unusually for an Israeli company, the public owns 95% of it shares.
Kosenco said that most common way to control an Israeli company was by creating vertical control group, a form of "pyramid control". He said that, two years ago, 26% of Israeli public companies were part of such pyramid controls.
Kosenco based part of his study on figures from 1999, which found that, among Israel's 20 largest public companies, one family owned an average of 2.5 companies.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 20, 2010
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