Zim parent shareholders agree to $100 million infusion
Israel Corp. said Sunday that shareholders approved a $100 million capital injection into subsidiary Zim Line at a shareholder meeting last Thursday,
The company said more information about the funding would be forthcoming.
The measure required approval by one-third of the company’s minority shareholders. The Offer Brothers Group owns about 53 percent of the Israel Corp., and last week questions about whether the deal would be approved arose when the Israeli Securities Authority said Bank Leumi Le-Israel Ltd., which owns about 18 percent of Zim, would not be able to vote on the measure. The securities regulators said Bank Leumi had a “personal interest” in seeing the capital infusion.
Israel Corp. said it doubted whether the controlling shareholders of the company had a personal interest in approving the transaction, but had held the shareholder meeting “out of conservative approach.”
The $100 million is part of a total of $350 million capital injection Israel Corp is making in the carrier.
Zim said it is taking other steps to deal with what it has called “the most severe recession ever” in the liner shipping industry. These include canceling ship orders and deferring of others, renegotiating charters, returning some vessels at the end of charters, restructuring some services, idling vessels, and possibly selling assets and reduction of administrative expenses.