One of the largest deals in the local capital market is expected to be signed today, when the insurance company the phoenix Sign the purchase of 14% of the car group Meir. The Phoenix will pay a total of approximately NIS 574 million in the deal, an amount that gives the Meir Group a value of NIS 4.1 billion, higher than the value it was announced about two weeks ago when it became known about the deal being forged between the parties.
The reason for the increase in Meir’s market value is an option given tothe phoenix To acquire 6% of Meir and reach a holding of 20%, the maximum rate allowed by law. The option, which was first published in Globes, is estimated to be worth between NIS 200 and 300 million and will allow Phoenix to increase its holding in Meir in three years to a value of between NIS 4.4 and 4.5 billion.
The deal comes after a strong year in the field of car imports to Israel, despite the difficulties in the supply chain that led to a shortage of new vehicles. The plight of the buyers and the great demand was manifested in a considerable improvement in the profitability of the importers and the leasing companies they own, despite the decrease in sales turnover. Therefore, the new value embodies Meir’s revenues, which have experienced an increase in recent months due to the increase in the price of vehicles in the world, and the aforementioned high demand in Israel.
The Meir Group was established in 1967 by the late Meir Kaz, as an exclusive importer of Volvo vehicles, and has developed over the years. Yaakov Shahar (81), his son-in-law and currently one of the owners of the team, is mainly identified with the Maccabi Haifa football club, which is part of the Meir Group business. In any case, Globes has learned that the soccer club is not part of the deal with the Phoenix.
A purchase of the group’s shares by the Phoenix, if it happens, will be a sort of closing of the circle, since in the past Shahar Vekaz’s automobile group was the controlling owner of the insurance company. The Meir Group purchased the controlling shares in Phenix from the businessman Yossi Hachmi 20 years ago, in 2002, and only four years later sold half of its shares at a large profit to the Delek Group of the businessman Yitzhak Tshuva. In the following years, the Meir Group continued to sell parts of its holdings in Phoenix, and at the beginning of this year it ceased to have an interest in the insurance group. So it turned out that the Meir group of Shahar and Kaz missed most of the jump that the Phoenix stock registered in recent years.