Business Scene

Jerusalem mayoral hopeful Arkadi Gaydamak is divesting himself of many of his assets so that he can focus his energies on his political campaign.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
gaydamak aj 224.88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
gaydamak aj 224.88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
JERUSALEM MAYORAL hopeful Arkadi Gaydamak, though trailing in the polls, seems determined to leave his cap in the mayoral ring; he is divesting himself of many of his assets so that he can focus his energies on his political campaign. Gaydamak reportedly has sold six penthouse apartments in Ramat Gan's Aviv Tower for NIS 37 million. He is also on the verge of selling Radio 99, with the most likely buyers a partnership team of Dudi Wiessman, who already owns one radio station, and Jerusalem Post proprietor Eli Azur. While economic pundits are claiming that Gaydamak's wealth is on the wane, Gaydamak is putting on a "business as usual" face. One of his confidantes was quoted as saying that if Gaydamak was really in financial trouble, he would have sold his yacht - and he hasn't done that. THE MANUFACTURERS Association of Israel's Textile Division invited Labor MK Shelly Yacimovich to attend its annual meeting this past week. She received resounding applause from the 60 textile manufacturers and their spouses who gathered at Meatos in Tel Aviv. Association president Shraga Brosh lauded Yacimovich for succeeding against all odds in having a bill passed to protect the textile industry, saying she had won a battle against the defense establishment, the police and the Finance Ministry. Yacimovich was outraged that uniforms and other textile products for the defense establishment were being manufactured in other countries; lower prices because of cheaper labor in the Far East might have been beneficial to the Defense Ministry's budget, but it was helping to bury the local textile industry. Yacimovich unrelentingly argued the case in the Knesset and found support in many quarters. Histadrut chairman Ofer Eini said in the not-so-distant past a stadium would have been needed to hold all of the country's textile workers and their employers, but today they would barely fill a banquet hall. Yacimovich said the cooperation between Brosh and Eini was a step toward saving the industry and a ray of light from those who demonstrate national responsibility, in contrast to the Treasury, which haggles as if it were running a grocery store. ADJACENT TO the Crowne Plaza hotel at the entrance to Jerusalem is a large, fenced-off area that has been designated as a new luxury neighborhood, but it has remained vacant for more than two years. The land behind the fence for more than 50 years contained a warren of huts and cubbyhole offices that comprised the Foreign Affairs Ministry. Although it would have been an ideal venue for residences for the president and the prime minister, whose present abodes in residential areas are unsuitable for current needs, the government, realizing the value of the land, sold the building rights to real-estate construction and development company B. Yair. The company could have decided to build new residences for the president and the prime minister on the site, along with an Israeli version of Blair House and perhaps a boutique hotel or two for VIPs and their retinues. But instead, Yair Biton, who is the joint managing-director and chairman of B. Yair and the chairman of the Jerusalem Association of Builders and Contractors, opted to build a prestige neighborhood. In Hebrew it is called Mishkenot Ha'Uma; in English it has gone through a series of translations, including the National Complex, which perhaps because someone realized the double meaning, is currently touted as The Supreme (not to be confused with the singing group The Supremes). When completed, the project will include 680 housing units (imagine the number of cars) and several commercial buildings to serve the needs of the resident population. Efrat Perlmutter, 40, was recently appointed as the new head of sales for the project. IT'S BEEN mentioned before in this column that it's a miracle the captains of Israel ever do any work, because they seem to spend so much time at conferences, lectures and cocktail receptions. While such events do provide opportunities for valuable networking, they also keep the boss away from his or her business - or at least make them late for work, as happened last week when, at the initiative of the Israel America Chamber of Commerce, several industrialists in the energy sphere met for breakfast in Tel Aviv with National Infrastructures Ministry director-general Hezi Kugler. The event was sponsored by Petco International and was attended by, among other, Zvi Rome, president and CEO of Petco International; Amir Makov, managing director of the Israeli Center for Energy and Environment; Ya'acov Danay, managing director of the National Coal Supply Corporation; Boeing president and former Israel ambassador to the US David Ivri; and Chamber of Commerce executive director Tamar Guy. The attendees discussed the present and future of the energy market. Kugler said government decisions were not an end in themselves; the main problem is the lack of implementation and the inability to establish initiatives. He urged the business sector and operators of joint venture funds to "get off the fence," because the business sector is the true engine to advance renewable-energy issues. PLASTIC SURGEON Dr. Dov Klein, whose operating table has borne the transformations of Israel's top celebrities and leading socialites, has added another string to his bow and has entered the realestate development business. Together with his childhood friend, attorney Eitan Conda, he invested NIS 30 million in the Mandarin Hotel, which stands somewhere on the halfway mark between Tel Aviv and Herzliya Pituah. Last year, Klein and Conda purchased the lobby of the hotel and in the following months also bought several suites that had been turned into small apartments. The combined purchase has been converted into a mini-mall where Klein has also opened a center for medical cosmetics. The inauguration of the center was attended by Prof. Pier Antonio Bacci of Sienna University, who is the president of the Italian Academy of Aesthetic Pathologies and Beauty. Bacci was in Israel to attend a national conference of cosmetic surgeons, where he was a guest lecturer, and Klein took advantage of his presence to get him to inspect the equipment and products at the Mandarin Shopping Center. Some of the equipment was developed in cooperation with Bacci's academy, and Klein decided not to put it to use until Bacci had given it the green light, which he did.