BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — Jewish-Argentine businessman Eduardo Elsztain will take control of the struggling firm that holds Israel’s largest mobile phone operator and leading supermarket chain.
On Sunday, following a year of negotiations, bondholders and bankers backed the plan presented by Elsztain and Israeli businessman Moti Ben-Moshe to take over the IDB Holding Corp., which controls Cellcom and Supersol.
The proposal in the second round of voting obtained the 75 percent of votes needed to take control of IDB. Voters rejected the proposal made by controlling shareholder Nochi Dankner and Ukrainian businessman Alexander Granovsky.
Elsztain, 53, is chairman and chief executive of IRSA, Argentina’s largest real estate company. IDB is the first IRSA investment in Israel.
He is a supporter of several Argentine Jewish institutions and projects, including the country’s first Jewish entrepreneurship incubator in partnership with Hillel Argentina. In May he was elected a vice president of the World Jewish Congress and became chairman of the new WJC Business Advisory Council.
For his first business venture in Israel, Elsztain will partner with Ben-Moshe, an Israeli entrepreneur who heads the holding company Xtra Holdings.
