El Al is trying to prevent the airline’s transfer of control to Eli Rozenberg, who acquired 42.89% of El Al with a $150 million offering at the company’s public offering last week, Globes reported.
El Al is claiming that Eli Rozenberg is a “straw man” acting on behalf of his father, New York-based businessman Kenny Rozenberg, who is not an Israeli citizen. “We will ask you to consider the request for a permit to control El Al,” a lawyer representing El Al’s board of directors wrote in a letter to Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Transportation Minister Miri Regev, and Cyber and National Digital Matters Minister David Amsalem.
Rozenberg has not yet gained official control of El Al as the approval of three government ministers is first required to be transferred to Israel’s Government Companies Authority, as outlined in the Finance Ministry’s bailout plan.
Tami Mozes-Borovitz, the current controlling shareholder of El Al through her family company Knafaim Holdings Ltd., is behind the attempt to prevent the transfer of the beleaguered airline to Rozenberg.
El Al’s new owner Eli Rozenberg “remains shrouded in mystery,” according to Globes. He has not granted any interviews to the media and has reportedly not even met some of the advisors he hired for his newly formed company Kanfei Nesharim Aviation.
“According to the law and El Al’s regulations, control of El Al must always be in the hands of a citizen and resident of Israel,” the letter from El Al to the government ministers states.
“According to the information obtained by El Al, Kanfei Nesharim is a company controlled by American businessman Kenny Rozenberg, who is not a citizen or resident of Israel. In order to circumvent the legislative restrictions, the shares of Kanfei Nesharim are registered in the name of his son, Mr. Eli Rozenberg, a young man of 26 who lacks independent means and business experience, to create the false appearance as if the controlling shareholder is a resident of Israel – so to speak.”
El Al (or more specifically Tami Mozes-Borovitz) clearly would have preferred if the Finance Ministry had allowed for a private placement, which would have enabled the more “friendly” bids of businessmen Meir Gurvitz and David Sapir.
In the letter, El Al requested an urgent meeting with government ministers.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
i get it theres a pride in an ownership of an israeli flagship product but he would have been better off buying the waldorf as it is real estate and he knows real estate airlines are meant to be owned by the public in the form of stocks as they dont really make money for the yachid. which individual owned a privalte airline and made so much money from it. the airlines are like kollel yungerleit that live paycheck to paycheck or minimum payment to minimum payement the second the airlines stops flying the “wash” stops . you see what happen to american and united they stopped for one month and boom they need a government bailout struggling to stay afloat make payroll etc. what happen to all the money accrued in the last 50 or so years of flying? they should have enough savings?
She has a point.
It is like a non religious business being taken over by religious. They don’t want to knuckle down under the religious rules; yet we religious who go into the work force have to knuckle down to the secular’s rules.
Well, I guess this is how it is going to be in the near future and the religious grow in number and wealth. Seculars are doomed!
Garlic
I guess it’s the same with us, we dictate to the frei laws when he comes into our world