Salt Industries today expressed willingness to cancel its cartel with Dead Sea Works and pledged not to engage in restrictive trade practices in the future, an Anti-Trust Authority source told “Globes” today.
Two months ago, “Globes” was the first to report that Anti-Trust Authority director general Adv. Dror Strum was planning to declare the agreements between Salt Industries and Dead Sea Works invalid. Salt Industries has purchasing agreements with Dead Sea Works for buying table salt and swimming pool salt at fixed quantities and at fixed prices. The agreements apply to the period until December 2010.
Salt Industries’ annual report said that in December 2000 the Anti-Trust Authority director general approached the company to clarify further details on the purchasing agreements. A senior Anti-Trust Authority source said that, under the law, the arrangement was considered a cartel and must be cancelled to open the local market to competition, which is non-existent at this point.
In its financial statements, Salt Industries says that changing its agreements with Dead Sea Works might affect its operating methods and adversely affect the profitability of its salt operations, which generated 11% of the company’s net profit in 2000.
Salt Industries’ 2000 net profit was NIS 81.79. Apart from the salt operations, all the company’s profit comes from its share in Bank Hapoalim’s controlling interest (12% of the bank’s shares, representing one-quarter of the controlling interest). The salt operations are thus Salt Industries’ sole industrial activity.
Salt Industries is traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) at a market value of NIS 1,.173 billion. Dead Sea Works, which produces and markets potash and chemical products, is a fully owned subsidiary of Israel Chemicals, which is traded on the TASE at a market value of NIS 5.076 billion.
Salt Industries’ reaction was not available by web-posting time.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on 7 June, 2001