ISRAEL ELIAHU IS hoping to enhance his company’s position in Israel’s banking market. "The sale of the government’s share will pave the way [for us] to put together a controlling-interest group [in Leumi]," the chief executive of Shlomo Eliahu Holdings says, during a lunch with Euromoney. Shlomo Eliahu Holdings, whose chairman, Shlomo Eliahu, is Israel Eliahu’s father, is already the largest private shareholder in Leumi, Israel’s biggest and oldest bank, with a 9.59% stake.
The government retains a controlling stake of 11.5% in Leumi – the legacy of a banking crisis in the 1980s – but in November finance minister Yuval Steinitz told Euromoney that the remaining shares "will be sold in the next few months".
"My goal is to sell as soon as possible with a good price," says Steinitz. "There is no preference for this or...
