Indonesians selling back 10% of Harel Investments at a loss

The Sampoerna family of Indonesia, which owns 20.8% of Harel Investments, is selling a 10% interest back to the Hamburger family, at a loss. The Sampoernas are getting NIS 112 per share, which is 8% less than the share price on the market. The Sampoernas had bought the Harel shares in late 2006 for NIS 193.27 per share.

That original deal represented a value of NIS 4 billion for Harel. The holding company is currently worth NIS 2.5 billion on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

While the Sampoernas owned the shares, they received dividends amounting to NIS 52 million.

Altogether the Indonesian family is losing between NIS 130 and NIS 140 million on the deal.

In early February this year, Harel firmly denied rumors making the rounds that the Sampoernas wanted out of their investment, though proposals were reportedly made to several business entities.

Yesterday Harel advised the stock exchange that the Sampoernas are reorganizing their businesses, and thus differentiating between financial and strategic investments. The family suggested that the Hamburgers buy 10% of Harel and said it would continue to own 10.82%, as a financial, not a strategic, investment.

The Hamburgers never did leverage their business relationship with the Sampoernas into other investments. During 2006 and 2007 the Hamburgers looked at projects in southeast Asia, but nothing came of it.