Yitzhak Gazit to Step Down as G City CEO and Hand Over to Keren Kalifa

Businessman Chaim Katzman said he intends to step down as chief executive of the income-producing real estate company G City, only days after announcing plans to give up control of the company. He is expected to leave the CEO role at the start of next year and return to the chairmanship. The company said he informed the board that he does not plan to renew his term, which is due to end at the end of January 2027.

Katzman, who has been CEO since 2018, had also served as vice chairman and held additional management roles in Israel and abroad. After the transition, he is set to go back to the chairman post, a position he held for more than two decades. His replacement will be Keren Kalifa, currently chief operating officer and head of G City’s real estate division.

The move follows Katzman’s announcement late last week that he plans to relinquish control of G City, formerly Gazit Globe, by selling half of the shares of Norstar, the holding company that controls 54.3% of G City. According to the company, the plan is meant to strengthen the capital structure and pave the way for listing G City’s subsidiaries without running into Israel’s three-tier public company pyramid restrictions under the concentration law.

Market expectations are that the planned listings could include G City Israel, which accounts for about 13% of group activity, and possibly G City Europe, which operates in Poland and makes up about 20% of the business. It is still unclear whether the shares will be sold to one buyer, creating a new controlling shareholder, or to several buyers, which would leave G City without a controlling block.