Gad Zeevi returning to Gadot? In talks to acquire the company for $550 million

On the way to a comeback? 27 years after selling his holdings in the company, Haifa businessman Gad Zeevi is negotiating the acquisition of the Gadot group, a partner in the Port of Haifa, at a valuation of about $550 million. Zeevi is leading a group of investors to acquire the company, and about ten days ago a memorandum of understanding was already signed for its purchase from the Tene fund, which holds 60% of the company, and an investor group led by Value Base (LBH) which holds 40%. The negotiations are for the purchase of all the company's shares. The sale process is being led by the investment bank Jefferies, which likely also connected Zeevi to the other investors in the group. No response was received from Zeevi.

The main asset of Gadot is a 30% stake in the Port of Haifa, where its main partner is the Indian Adani group, which holds 70% of the shares. Alongside this, the company operates in the fields of shipping, chemicals, energy, and storage solutions, and holds subsidiaries in the Netherlands, Belgium, the USA, and Germany. The Tene fund has been trying for a long time to complete an exit from its holding in Gadot, which it acquired 12 years ago — an unusual period for a private equity fund. The fund, managed by Ariel Halperin, acquired the company in 2014, then called Gadot Tankers, for $73.5 million from the receivers, while beating the FIMI fund in the tender. At that time, the company was held by Yossi Maiman's Ampal group, which collapsed, and Bank Discount realized the lien on its shares after Ampal became insolvent.

In 2020, Tene tried to take Gadot public at a valuation of $300 million, but postponed the move after investors demanded a lower valuation. A year later, it sold 40% of Gadot's shares to the LBH fund, led by Shimon Ben-Hamo and Ofer Linczewski, currently the CEO of Gadot, at a valuation of $280 million. David Fattal, Chen Lamdan of Orian, Eyal Waldman, Gadi Aviram, and Achishay Fox also joined the investor group. Under current ownership, Gadot joined the Adani group in 2022, and together the two won the tender for the privatization of the Port of Haifa for 4.2 billion shekels — a sum that was about 1.5 billion shekels higher than the second offer. The price paid is still perceived as particularly high, but it also included about 2.6 billion shekels that were in the port's coffers. The state prohibited withdrawing this sum until the construction of a deep-water pier, intended to allow the reception of large container ships and increase competition against the nearby Bay Port, which is Chinese-owned.

The Bay Port continues to steadily increase its market share in the container sector at the expense of the Port of Haifa, and is hurting its financial results, which are not published. In 2025, 636 thousand containers passed through the Bay Port compared to 563 thousand in 2024, while 676 thousand containers passed through the Port of Haifa compared to 648 thousand the previous year. Last month, it was published that the state and the owners of the Port of Haifa are expected to sign an amended agreement, which will allow the owners to withdraw dividends before the construction of the deep-water pier, provided that one billion shekels are deposited, which will be allocated for the construction of the pier. Before the privatization, the port's revenues amounted to about 845 million shekels per year, and the net profit stood at 271 million shekels.

The sale of Gadot is significant for Tene, because the fund has not managed to raise a new fund, and accordingly has not made new acquisitions in recent years. Its last fund, with a volume of $410 million, was raised in 2017. Its performance was hurt, among other things, by the failed investment in Caesarstone, whose stock crashed, and by the criticism leveled at the price paid for the Port of Haifa. Gadot was founded in 1957 by the Yohananoff family, which operated in the field of chemical import and export and owned a fleet of tankers and storage facilities for chemical materials. During the years 1998-1999, Zeevi, who held 36% of the shares, tried to take over the company by purchasing shares of the Delek group, which held about 35% of it, for 75 million shekels. Zeevi himself received the Gadot shares when he acquired Clal Trade at the beginning of 1998, which held the shares. The takeover move did not materialize after the Yohananoff family opposed it and requested to exercise its right of first refusal. Eventually, Zeevi sold his holdings to the Yohananoff family and the Delek group in 1999 for 52 million shekels and at a valuation of about 150 million shekels. Maiman's Ampal group acquired Gadot in 2007 for 545 million shekels, and as mentioned, parted with it in 2014 as part of its creditor arrangement in favor of Tene.

Zeevi, who was previously the owner of Beitar Jerusalem, is known mainly for the huge investment he made in Bezeq in 1999. He acquired the controlling shares from Cable & Wireless through bank financing of hundreds of millions of dollars, but did not meet the loan repayments. The banks sold the shares, and were subsequently ordered to compensate him with hundreds of millions of shekels following a Supreme Court ruling, which determined that interest was charged to him illegally. Zeevi was also acquitted in the criminal proceeding that concerned the claim that businessman Michael (Len) Blavatnik was a hidden partner in the Bezeq deal. Among Zeevi's prominent holdings over the years were the Grand Canyon in Haifa, Clal Trade, the logistics company Overseas — whose activity partially overlaps with that of Gadot — Subaru importer Ifanauto, and the Elisha Hospital, which was sold in 2017 to Zvi Barinboim and the Nara company for 180 million shekels. In 2019, Zeevi was mentioned as a candidate to acquire control of Bezeq from Eurocom's bondholders, but in the end, it was the Searchlight fund that acquired control of the company. Gad Zeevi and Gadot CEO Ofer Linczewski. A memorandum of understanding has already been signed.