The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) is drying up, proof of which is derived from sales by insiders, which totaled less than NIS 1 billion (NIS 994 million) in 2012, the lowest figure since 2008, the year of the credit crisis.
The number of companies listed on the TASE is falling, trading volumes have shrunk almost to the vanishing point, and the result is that fewer and fewer insiders are converting shares into cash.
Nonetheless, an examination by "Globes" found that in 2003-12, the TASE enabled insiders to sell a substantial amount of goods to the tune of NIS 33.3 billion.
Gad Propper, a scion of the founding family of Osem Investments Ltd. (TASE: OSEM), was responsible for more than a third of sales by insiders in 2012, when he sold all his shares to Osem's controlling shareholder, Nestlé SA (SWX:NESN), for NIS 372 million, and chose to begin a new chapter in his business career.
Shlomo Eliahu, the new controlling shareholder of Migdal Insurance and Financial Holdings Ltd. (TASE: MGDL), was required to sell part of his stake in Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI), and sold NIS 200 million worth of shares.
Excluding these two extraordinary sales, sales by insiders on the TASE totaled just NIS 422 million in 2012.
Prominent insiders who sold shares in 2012 include Delek Energy Systems Ltd. (TASE: DLEN) chairman Gabriel Last, who sold shares for NIS 53.1 million; former Mizrahi Tefahot Bank (TASE:MZTF) CEO Eli Yones, who sold shares for a gross value of NIS 48.5 million; and former Israel Chemicals Ltd. (TASE: ICL) CEO Akiva Mozes, who sold shares in the company for NIS 29.2 million.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 31, 2012
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2012