Arkia Employees Clash With Investor Over Company Sale
Translated & summarized from Calcalist by baba
Arkia employees, represented by T.A.T., are opposing a $30 million deal to sell the airline to an investor group including Yariv Lerner and the Nakash brothers. T.A.T. accuses Lerner of breaking understandings and the Nakash representative, Avi Hurumro, of trying to eliminate employee corporate entities. The employees are seeking an alternative investor and insist the company must operate flights on Shabbat, which scuttled a previous deal with Ezra Unger.
The story in 5 lines · by baba
- Arkia employees oppose a $30 million sale deal involving investor Yariv Lerner and the Nakash brothers.
- Employee representatives accuse Lerner of breaking understandings and Nakash representative of eliminating employee entities.
- The employees are seeking an alternative investor for the airline.
- A deal with Ezra Unger failed because he refused to operate flights on Shabbat.
- Employees insist Arkia must operate flights on the Sabbath.
A rift has emerged between Yariv Lerner, a member of the group seeking to acquire Arkia, and the Nakash brothers, who are current investors, and the Tiyur V'Tiyul (T.A.T.) company, which represents the airline's employees and holds a 22% stake. The employees oppose the deal to sell the company to Lerner, Kidan Dahari, and Yaron Adib, along with Einav Barrer Adib, for a $30 million investment.
T.A.T. informed employees that it has accused Lerner of breaking understandings and blamed Avi Hurumro, the Nakash brothers' representative, of attempting to eliminate the employees' corporate entities within Arkia. "We updated you that we have identified serious investors, some of whom have signed with us to continue your partnership in every respect," T.A.T. stated in a letter to employees. The group T.A.T. had assembled exchanged drafts with the Nakash brothers, and a signing date was coordinated.
One of the investor groups included Lerner, Avi Elkia, owner of Ha'shahar, and George Varour, active in the lab-grown diamond sector. "Yesterday, upon entering the board meeting, we were shocked to discover that one of the investors in the group, Yariv Lerner, joined another investor group representing the Nakash group and attended the Arkia board meeting, while we were waiting to meet him," T.A.T. stated. "We found ourselves facing investors we do not know (except for Lerner), and the Nakash group's representative, Hurumro, who aggressively tried to advance a decision to approve the investors' entry while definitively eliminating Arkia's employee corporations. This is the true DNA of the investors recruited by the Nakash group under Hurumro's leadership."
According to the directors who signed the letter, Hurumro explicitly stated that if the employees found an alternative investor under the same terms, the Nakash shares would transfer to them. "I hope we will succeed in the coming days in finding an investor to step into the offer's shoes," the letter concluded. The committee, led by Avi Edri, chairman of T.A.T., is attempting to reach agreements with several candidates, including Ezra Unger, a Haredi entrepreneur from New York who was close to finalizing a deal with Nakash to purchase the company. However, the deal fell through due to his refusal to operate flights on Shabbat, a condition the employees insist upon.
Mentioned
