The investment bank Citigroup rose in recent days to a 3% holding in the bank discount , when he purchased a package of shares of the Israeli bank. The purchase was made a few days after Discount reported a record profit in 2022 of NIS 3.5 billion, a 26% increase in net profit compared to 2021.
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The investment is a kind of expression of confidence by Citigroup in an Israeli bank, at a time when in the US alone three banks collapsed, when the Swiss Credit Suisse also collapsed and was sold to UBS.
According to Israeli law, there is a public reporting obligation for holdings of over 2.5%, which reinforces the assessment that Citigroup already owned Discount shares before the latest purchase. In addition, it appears that the investment was made without the involvement of an Israeli institutional body, because in such a case the same institutional body would have reported the purchase.
Today, the market value of Discount stands at NIS 21.8 billion, an amount that gives Citigroup’s holdings a value of more than NIS 650 million.
We will recall that last December Discount announced that the American investment management company CMRC (Capital Research and Management Company) also invested and reached a holding of approximately 2.5% in the bank’s shares.