The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) IPO market is showing signs of weakening. Ashtrom Properties Ltd. (TASE:ASPR) subsidiary Ashdar Building Co. Ltd. today cut the company value for its offering and changed its structure. The failure comes one week after Peninsula Financial Ltd. cancelled its planned IPO.
Ashdar is one of Israel’s largest real estate companies, and also controls Allied Investments Ltd., Volkswagen and Audi importer, Champion Motors (Israel) Ltd. and other companies. The company originally planned to hold its IPO at a company value of NIS 800 million, after money. Today’s institutional tender was held at a value of around NIS 600 million, after the company already twice cut the value for the offering.
REIT Asset Management (Israel) Ltd. (British Israel), controlled by British billionaire Leo Noe, has also been forced to cut the company value for its IPO, even before the institutional tender. Today, real estate company PMS and independent supermarket chain Rami Levy Hashikma Marketing Ltd. both held institutional tenders for IPOs on the basis of their financial reports of 2006.
The present crop of IPOs on the TASE is shaping up to be one of the largest ever on the market, as entrepreneurs try to exploit a favorable market climate to raise capital. Some of the entrepreneurs have proven track records. Many of the companies are in the real estate and life science industries. It will be interesting to see how investors weed out the poorer quality goods to keep them off the TASE.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on May 15, 2007
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