Israeli Investment Firm Founders Explore Selling Control Amid Market Uncertainty

The controlling shareholders of the Israeli investment house Altshuler Shaham Financials, Gilad Altshuler and Kalman Shaham, are reportedly exploring the possibility of selling their controlling stake in the company. Altshuler Shaham Financials is publicly traded and manages NIS 112 billion (approximately $30 billion USD) in assets, with a market capitalization of NIS 1.4 billion (approximately $380 million USD). The company is 55.4% owned by Altshuler Ltd., which is in turn held by Gilad Altshuler and the Shaham family. Yair Levinstein, who manages the public provident funds, holds a 14.8% stake, with the remaining shares held by the public.

In a separate development, Discount Bank has requested that Israel's banking supervisor, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Justice cancel the requirement for the bank to sell its stake in the credit card company Cal. The bank's plea comes in response to stringent conditions set by the Israel Competition Authority for the sale of Cal to the Horesh-Harel group. These conditions include the appointment of a Competition Authority representative to Cal's board and a prohibition on appointing directors from Union, Horesh's holding company, due to Union's stake in Super-Pharm, a competitor to Shufersal's pharmacy chain. Horesh finds these conditions unacceptable.

Meanwhile, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange is expected to open following a night of declines on Wall Street, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 1.2%, the S&P 500 down 0.6%, and the Nasdaq Composite down 0.3%. This comes amidst a positive trend in oil prices, with Brent crude rising 1.4% to $99.30 per barrel and WTI crude up 1.3% to $94.20 per barrel. U.S. 10-year Treasury yields are stable around 4.80%, while Israeli 10-year bond yields are at 3.94%. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange closed lower on the previous day, with the TA-35 index down 0.8% and the TA-125 index down 1%. Navitas Petroleum saw a significant drop of 2.7% on high trading volume, reportedly due to potential legal proceedings from Argentina concerning a project in the Falkland Islands.