Affinity Partners, led by Jared Kushner, son-in-law of former US President Donald Trump and current Republican nominee, is in talks to buy a 4.9% stake in Israeli insurance and finance group Phoenix Holdings from Centerbridge & Gallatin for NIS 450 million ($123.6 million), Israeli business daily Globes reported.
The company is valued at NIS 10 billion ($2.74 billion) according to the negotiations, and the talks include an option to buy an additional 4.9%.
Centerbridge & Gallatin owns a 31.45% controlling interest in Phoenix Holdings.
Difficult approval
Affinity is seeking to buy the shares in two stages in order to retain more than 5% of the insurance company, which requires the approval of the Israel Securities Authority, as the company raises most of its money from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, and it is not certain that it will obtain this approval. In addition, if the company wants to increase its stake beyond 15%, it will need additional approval from the authority, according to the Israeli newspaper.
If any deal is concluded, this will be Affinity’s second investment in Israel after it acquired 15% of the Shlomo Group, a car and finance company run by Assi Schmeltzer, last year.
The original deal was supposed to be at a public valuation of NIS 3.8 billion ($1 billion), but after the war broke out Affinity eventually invested $110 million at a public valuation of NIS 2.7 billion ($741.4 million).
