The arrival in Israel of the heads of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS) resulted in one of the largest productions seen here in a long while, and included the country’s business elite.
Last night, Goldman Sachs held its board meeting at the Tower of David Museum at Jaffa Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem, with the bank’s chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein presiding. This was the first time that Israel hosted the board meeting of one of the world’s largest and most important international investment banks. He said that the investment held one board meeting a year away from its New York headquarters, and that Israel was chosen this year because of its strong economy and its companies.
Before the board meeting, the directors met Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who said, “I am proud that you chose to convene your board meeting in Jerusalem. The fact that a major financial institution, one of the most important in the world, is holding working meetings of this kind is very significant for us. What we still need is for global companies such as yours to invest in Israel. Israel has much to offer and I hope that you will exhaust the opportunities provided by the Israeli economy.”
The discretely organized event accompanying the board included 160 of Israel’s business leaders, including Nochi Dankner, Yitzhak Tshuva, Lev Leviev, Shari Arison, Shlomo Nehama, Zadik Bino, Mordechai Zisser, Joseph Maiman, Galia Maor, Yair Hamburger, Idan ofer, Dan Dankner, Zvi Ziv, Igal Ahouvi, Shlomo Yanai, Erez Vigodman, Avraham Bigger, Yossi Vardi, Shlomo Dovrat, Ron Lubash, Amos Shapira, Dov Moran, Michael Federmann, Chaim Katzman, and Ofra Strauss. Following the catered dinner, the participants watched a performance by the Batsheva Dance Company and a recital by Yitzhak Perlman.
Goldman Sachs has recently been involved in several offerings by Israeli companies, including the IPOs of Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE:CEL) and AFI Development plc (LSE:AFID), the secondary offering by Ormat Technologies Inc. (NYSE: ORA), and Hewlett Packard Co.’s (NYSE:HPQ) $4.5 billion acquisition of HP-Mercury Interactive, and is an investor in LanOptics Ltd. (Nasdaq: LNOP; TASE:LNOP) and start-up Oberon Media Ltd.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on June 12, 2007
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