For two and a half months, Tamir Cohen tried to persuade Menora Mivtachim, Phoenix and Harel to approve his salary terms as CEO of the Shikun VeBinui real estate company.
Cohen, who served until last April in a dual position, chairman and CEO, preferred to accept the institutional requirement and remain in the CEO position, while director Doron Arbeli will be appointed chairman. The institutions, for their part, were supposed to approve a cost wage of up to NIS 15.2 million in return, compared to a previous wage of NIS 10 million.
Cohen, like many CEOs before him including Ofer Greenbaum and Idan Wells, suddenly discovered that institutional investors were no longer willing to approve wage increases in a period of sharp declines in the markets. ), Arad and Matrix and so they decided to behave with the new CEO of Shikun VeBinui.
Although the institutions opposed the salaries and grants of the four CEOs mentioned, they were able to secure salary upgrades amounting to millions of shekels by the Uber Rowling tool.
Unfortunately, however, Cohen’s housing and construction situation is different from that of the companies mentioned. Housing and construction depends on the satisfaction of the institutions beyond being shareholders – as business partners for everything. As a senior company official explained to Calcalist, they are financing the company’s projects and purchasing finished assets from it. In other words, the departure of the Housing and Construction management against the institutional decision – Dina fired at the foot of the company.
The main entities holding the company’s shares are Menora Mivtachim (8.14%), Migdal (5.07%), Phoenix-Excellence (6.1%) and Harel (4.6%). Throughout the persuasion campaign, it became clear that those who have an open account with Cohen for dealing with them in other arenas – including the subsidiary Shikun VeBinui Real Estate, where Harel and Phoenix were not satisfied with the conduct.
Beyond that, the institutionals do not feel comfortable upgrading Cohen’s salary in light of the stock’s poor performance. Shikun VeBinui is traded at a value of NIS 5.75 billion, after its share has fallen by 33% since the beginning of the year, compared with a 16% drop in the Tel Aviv Construction Index, which included the company. 34.5%, compared to the index that shed only 7.7%.
As part of an attempt to compromise with the institutions, Cohen agreed to cut his capital compensation and the grants promised to him by NIS 3 million to a total salary cost of NIS 12 million. At the beginning of the week, Shikun VeBinui were still confident that this compromise would help and lead to agreements, so they brought the meeting forward to Monday of the week. However, during the meeting, the management realized that the reduced salary would not pass either, and apparently – this is a personal matter for the institutions with Cohen.
Following this, the meeting was adjourned without a hearing and without a decision being made regarding the salary of Cohen and Arbeli as chairman – and was postponed to an unknown date.
It is now interesting to see whether Shikun VeBinui will understand the hint or continue lobbying with the institutional institutions while cutting deeper on Cohen’s salary. If so, the company is expected to convene a new meeting in the coming days.
Housing and Construction declined to comment.