Shari Arison sells Hapoalim stake to Clal Insurance

Shari Arison continues to sell it Bank Hapoalim (level: polySince yesterday, he is no longer a party to the interest of the bank. Arison sold stock to Clal Insurance Holding Corporation Limited. (level: CLIS) for NIS 336 million and reducing its ownership from 5.6% to only 4.88% in the bank in which it was previously the controlling shareholder.

The stock sale measures follow Arison’s decision in September 2018 to sell its holdings in Israel. I reached an agreement with the Bank of Israel whereby Hapoalim would be converted into a bank without a controlling interest. Under the terms of the agreement, it was determined that Arison would be obligated to reduce its holding to less than 5%. The Bank of Israel set seven years to complete the sale of the shares, which yesterday complied with the decision.

This latest sale was a relatively small tranche of the stock. In its previous sale in September 2022, it sold 2.3% of the bank’s shares for NIS 1.03 billion to a series of corporate bodies.

On this occasion, unlike last time, it was Arison’s decision to wait and sell each time there was a lower stock payment. The sale that took place yesterday was carried out at 33.36 shekels per share, while in September 2022 it was executed at 33.77 shekels per share (at that time the discount was only about 1% of the market price). This time, the sale was made according to the closing price of the bank’s stock yesterday. From Arison’s point of view, this is an excellent deal because for the first two tranches, buyers got a huge discount on the price. In November 2018, for example, the first sale of shares closed at a discount of 6% from the market price, and the second in April 2021 at a discount of 5%.

After yesterday’s sale, Arison sold Hapoalim shares worth NIS 5.7 billion.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on Jul 20, 2023.

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