Naty Saidoff is close to agreement with Eurocom’s creditor banks, which would require him to inject NIS 400 million into the company
Naty Saidoff is in advanced talks to buy Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Co. Ltd. (TASE: BEZQ) through one of its parent companies ahead of court discussions later today. Last night there were talks between Saidoff and the creditor banks (Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI), Israel Discount Bank (TASE: DSCT) and First International Bank of Israel (TASE: FTIN)) for Eurocom Group, through which Shaul Elovitch controls Bezeq in attempts to put together a sale deal. It is not yet clear at what level of Elovitch’s pyramid (Eurocom, Internet-Zahav, B Communications) Saidoff will take control of Bezeq but the belief is that it will be through Internet-Zahav.
These talks follow the failure of Saidoff to buy Africa-Israel Investments Ltd. (TASE:AFIL) where he lost out to a bid by Moti Ben-Moshe
In the deal being dicussed now, Saidoff would inject NIS 400 million into Eurocom, which would redeem nearly a quarter of its NIS 1.5 billion debt (including the debts of Eurocom Real Estate). Such a deal would also involve the banks writing off about NIS 700 million of the debt
In recent weeks, Meir Shamir was in talks to buy Eurocom but he was demanding that the banks write off NIS 400 million of the debt. The banks say that since asking the courts to liquidate Eurocom last week, there have been a significant increase in offers to acquire Bezeq, as companies realize that the intention of selling control in the telecom company is more serious
Hapoalim has approved Saidoff’s offer, while Discount Bank and First International are still considering it
Until recently, Naty Saidoff was not a familiar name in Israel’s capital market. In his addition to his failed attempt to buy Africa-Israel, he also tried to buy control of Jerusalem Economy, then owned by Eliezer Fishman