The Israel Government and the representative of the Palestine Potash Company, Lord Glenconnor, this week-end signed an agreement establishing a new company to exploit the mineral resources of the Dead Sea. The Israel Government will have a 51 percent voting interest in the new company, the Dead Sea Works, Ltd.
The Palestine Potash Company will exchange all its assets and patent from the Mandatory Government in return for a minority interest in the new company. It will receive 1,220,000 shares–valued at one pound par–in the new company. This will give it 16 percent of the voting shares. In addition, it will receive 390,000 non-voting debentures.
The government will grant the new company $2,500,000 from the U.S. Export-Import Bank loan and the company will seek to obtain an additional loan of $1,000,000 from the Palestine Economic Corporation. The former shareholders in the Palestine Potash Company will appoint two directors in the new company and the government will name five directors. M. Novomeysky, manager of Palestine Potash, will be named honorary president of Dead Sea Works.
Meanwhile, a crew of some 200 workers will depart this week for Sodom, on the Dead Sea, to prepare homes for workers who will operate the plant. It is understood that the directors of the former Potash Company will soon contact the Jordan Government to negotiate for the company’s plant in Jordan territory and to demand compensation for property destroyed during the War of Liberation.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
