The names behind the acquisition of control of Delek Israel: Rozensky...

1. Avi Levy

The deal to acquire control of Delek Israel is being executed by the investment company Lahav L.R., with the support of two bridging loans from its controlling shareholder, Avi Levy, in a significant amount of close to NIS 60 million – almost a quarter of the department in the deal. This is in addition to NIS 15 million that Levy will invest in an allotment of private shares that Lahav will carry out for him, as a preliminary step in raising capital that the company plans to carry out soon.

Most of Lahav LR’s activity is concentrated in the field of real estate for investment in income-producing properties and its activity is concentrated in Germany, in addition to solar energy activity in Israel. As part of a capital raising made by the company – an investment that made him the controlling shareholder and chairman of Lahav L.R.

Levy currently owns about 36% of Lahav’s shares, which are worth about NIS 185 million (after a daily jump of about 20%). The large sums of money that Levy can afford to invest in the company stemmed from the replica capital he accumulated during his years as CEO of the mall giant Melisron, which was estimated at his retirement about half a billion shekels a year ago (mainly the market value of his shares in the company at the time).

After a long saga regarding the renewal of Levy’s employment agreement with Melisron, which arose following disagreements between him and the controlling owner of the company, Liora Ofer, Levy announced in July 2019 the termination of his tenure at the company, and officially resigned at the end of October of that year.

Shortly after Levy announced his departure from Melisron – following disagreements with controlling shareholder Liora Ofer over a shareholding he demanded – he sold most of his holdings in the company last October for about NIS 280 million, while the company’s shares traded around its peak level, which then reflected Melisron’s value. Current of more than NIS 10 billion.

The timing of Levy’s sale turned out to be optimal for him in retrospect. Since then, under the influence of the corona crisis, the stock has lost almost half of its value, and today it reflects a value of less than NIS 6 billion for Melisron.

Levy’s employment costs as CEO of Melisron approached NIS 50 million during his eight years in office (2012-2019), but as mentioned, he accumulated most of his capital through shares, a large part of which were purchased on the market.

2. Ilik Rozensky

Those who remain Levy’s partners in Lahav, and who still hold significant shares of the company’s capital, are former controlling shareholder Eli Lahav, Naftali Shimshon, CEO Hava Zamir-Toaf and Deputy Chairman Ilik Rozensky.

Levy made his first investment in the shares of Lahav L.R. in April 2019, even when he was CEO of Lissaron, when he invested NIS 11 million in the purchase of a share in the shares of Rozensky and Zamir-Toaf in Lahav.

For Rozensky the deal with Delek Group is closing the circle. More than a decade after leaving the group he headed at Delek Real Estate, he is now returning and acquiring from it (along with others) one of its key assets.

Rozensky, who is considered a dominant CEO, led Delek Real Estate on a journey of leveraged buyouts overseas in the boom years in the markets, before the global crisis of 2008. The collapse of the markets and the fall in the value of its assets put Delek Real Estate in crisis, leading to Rozanski leaving The position of CEO (in 2009), after a decade in which he became one of the richest employees in the economy. Alongside him at the time was also Hava Zamir-Tauf – the company’s deputy CEO, who continued with him at Lahav L.R.

Subsequently, a debt settlement of NIS 2.15 billion was signed in 2012 for Delek Real Estate (which was transferred from the Delek Group to Yitzhak Tshuva itself at the beginning of the crisis), in which the holders received a significant “haircut” of 65% on the debt.

3. Uri Mansour

Lahav L.R.’s partner (in equal parts) in the Delek Israel transaction is businessman Uri Mansour. As far as is known, Mansour owns, among other things, the factory and Vaporjet in Ofakim, which operates in the field of non-woven fabrics, which are a raw material for the production of wet wipes and disposable diapers. For sports fans in Israel, Mansour is also known as the former president of the Hapoel Jerusalem basketball team.

In the real estate field, as far as is known, Mansour joined as a partner in Lahav’s operations in Germany after Lahav became its controlling shareholder, about seven years ago, and since then he has been a partner in its transactions there, which include dozens of income-producing properties.

Lahav notes that Mansour, through the private BGM company, which he fully owns, has been a partner in “many properties in Germany for years.” Last June, Lahav, together with Mansour, completed a major deal to acquire 31 income-producing properties in Germany for about 73 million euros, divided into 75% by Lahav and 25% by Mansour.