Israeli Finance Minister Avraham Shochat has adopted a committee’s recommendation that the country’s major banks divest themselves of most of their nonfinancial holdings.
In its report on banking and concentrations of ownership, a committee headed by Finance Ministry Director General David Brodet recommended that Bank Hapoalim, Israel’s largest industrial conglomerates.
Bank Hapoalim controls 22.7 percent of Koor shares and 33.2 percent of Clal shares.
The committee also recommended that Bank Leumi sell its holdings in either Migdal, Israel’s largest insurance firm, or in the Africa-Israel real estate concern.
The recommendation also called for bank Leumi and Bank Hapoalim to reduce their holdings in nonbanking concerns to 25 percent by the end of 1996, and to 20 percent by the end of 1988.
The committee further said banks should not sell their holdings to any of the other major conglomerates in Israel.
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