Just 5 a long time back, in early 2018, holding company Kardan NV (TASE: KRNV) came close to providing engineering business Tahal to private equity company Fortissimo for $120 million.

This 7 days, at the close of a prolonged interval of deterioration in its outcomes, Tahal achieved what appears to be like the stop of the street, with a petition for security from its creditors for the functions of placing alongside one another a credit card debt settlement. The company is bancrupt, with money owed of more than NIS 400 million, chiefly to banks in Israel.

Tahal, which is lively in water infrastructure in Israel and close to the planet, attained this nadir just after lots of makes an attempt to provide it to Israeli and overseas customers, at ever lowering valuations, unsuccessful in the earlier number of many years.

Last August, Gonen Betser, CEO of dad or mum enterprise Tahal Group, announced his resignation. He was replaced by Guy Elias, who is also CEO of the controlling shareholder in the firm, Kardan NV, which itself has long gone from one financial debt settlement to another in new several years.

Tahal is now asking for 60 days to formulate a settlement with its creditors. It owes NIS 210 million to Bank Hapoalim, NIS 90 million to Financial institution Leumi, NIS 67.8 million to Mizrahi Tefahot Bank, and NIS 20.5 million to HSBC. The remainder of its personal debt (above NIS 22 million) is to workers, condition authorities, and suppliers.

Final year, the courtroom accredited a next credit card debt settlement for Kardan NV, in which its bondholders been given 90% of its shares towards a haircut amounting to 50 % of its NIS 1.5 billion personal debt. The collapse of Tahal, which was deemed to be a single of the sources for repaying the debt, could indicate that this was not the final settlement for Kardan NV’s lenders.

Tahal itself was started in 1942, right before the foundation of the Point out of Israel, to prepare transportation of water in the Jewish settlement in what was then Palestine, at the initiative of David Ben-Gurion. It became included in 1961. Transferring forward to 2018, when it was pretty much offered to Fortissimo, Tahal Group was headed by Sahar Bracha, who pushed the enterprise into quick enlargement through bold jobs overseas, predominantly in Africa. This turned out to be a loss-earning journey that left Tahal with large money owed and liquidity challenges.

In late 2019, additional tries to offer Tahal were being produced, between them to personal equity kind FIMI and Shikun & Binui (at a valuation of just $12 million, a tenth of what Fortissimo had supplied two several years previously). These tries also unsuccessful, right after the banking institutions thwarted the sale to Shikun & Binui and later on refused new guarantees for Tahal, in which the liquidity troubles were being worsening.




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Fortissimo pulls out of Tahal acquisition







Bracha still left in February 2020. A 12 months earlier, Tahal Consulting Engineers states in its courtroom petition, its subsidiaries unsuccessful to meet up with their economic covenants, and so their credit score traces have been not extended.

The business also cites large wage charges as a final result of collective agreements signed in 2014 awarding more severance pay out to staff who left. Tahal Team at the moment employs 290 people, 68 of them in Israel.

Kardan NV’s financials display that water infrastructure (Tahal Group), which signifies the action of Tahal Consulting Engineers in water in Israel and globally, produced income of €62 million in the to start with nine months of 2022, and incurred a gross reduction of €5.9 million, an advancement on the gross reduction of €12.3 million in the corresponding time period of 2021.

The company posted a net reduction of €22.7 million in the interval, compared to a internet decline of €30.7 million in the corresponding interval of 2021. At the conclusion of September 2022, Tahal had damaging shareholders’ fairness of €100 million and €5.9 million money.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on January 17, 2023.

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2023.


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