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Alex Sapir fails to take control of ASRR Capital in stock buyout
The CEO offered to buy 19% of public shares for $15M
Alex Sapir, head of the Tel Aviv-based ASRR Capital, failed to take control of the company through a buyout Wednesday, and remove the company from the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
Sapir, who has an 81.8 percent stake in the company, offered to buy out the remaining public shares for $15 million, but failed to garner the 95 percent demand required for the buyout to go through, Israeli newspaper Maariv reported.
ASRR Capital, a publicly traded company in Israel with holdings in the United States, was led by both Sapir and Rotem Rosen until June, when in a surprise move Sapir bought out his partner’s 40.5 percent stake in the company. That put Sapir’s stake at 81.8 percent, with the remaining 19.2 percent held by a variety of institutional and private stockholders.
Sapir initially offered .98 of the par value per share, then upped it to 1.8 a week later for a total of $15 million. According to the terms of the offer, Sapir can’t try again for at least four months.
ASRR’s stock price had jumped 23 percent in the two weeks since the announcement of the potential buyout, and fell 6 percent after the offer was blocked.
ASRR is behind a mixed-use project in Miami’s Arts & Entertainment District, a townhouse conversion on Madison Avenue, and recently teamed up with several Israeli partners for a residential project in Surfside. Sapir, through the Sapir Organization, has additional holdings in New York, including the Mondrian Soho hotel.
ASRR was not immediately available for comment. [Maariv] — Chava Gourarie