Israel Sells Discount Stake for 832 Million Shekels
Israel sold its 11.7 percent stake in Israel Discount Bank Ltd., the country’s third-largest lender, for 832 million shekels ($230 million).
Citigroup Inc., which won a tender to buy the shares, paid 7.255 shekels each for the stock, the Finance Ministry said today in an e-mailed statement. Citigroup and IBI, a Tel Aviv- based investment house, sold the shares to international and local investors, IBI said in a separate statement.
The sale, the third this year, completes the government’s disposal of its holdings in Discount. Israel, which also is planning to sell its remaining 11.46 percent stake in Bank Leumi Le-Israel Ltd., the country’s largest lender, is selling its bank holdings after bailing out the financial system more than 25 years ago.
“Today we’ve completed a big part of this process,” said Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz. “We now have an additional task - the sale of the Bank Leumi shares.”
The stock rose 1.7 percent, the most in almost two weeks, to 7.368 shekels at 10:32 a.m. in Tel Aviv.
To contact the reporters on this story: Ronit Goodman in Tel Aviv at rgoodman9@bloomberg.net; To contact the reporter on this story: Alisa Odenheimer in Jerusalem at aodenheimer@bloomberg.net
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