Lusix sale hits a snag: Unfulfilled guarantees and rising bids
Lusix sale hits a snag: Unfulfilled guarantees and rising bids
Investor Naoji Fujimori's bid falters as guarantees remain unpaid and rivals step up.
There are difficulties in the sale process of Benny Landa's laboratory diamond company, Lusix, to the Japanese investor Naoji Fujimori, owner of the public company EDP.
According to an application to the court by the company's trustee, Shay Bar Nir, the Japanese buyer did not transfer a guarantee of 10% as required by the agreement, even after Bar Nir's repeated requests. Fujimori submitted an offer of $2.5 million (NIS 9.5 million), which was significantly higher than the competing offer. The Japanese proposal includes no less than 36 payments of NIS 238,000 each, along with NIS 950,000 in cash.
According to Bar Nir's new application to the court, the party competing against Fujimori has since requested to raise their competing offer to $2.7 million (NIS 10.3 million). Bar Nir is asking the court to extend, if necessary, the order to delay the proceedings beyond the current deadline of October 8.
Lusix has lost $65 million in the last two and a half years, following an investment of $152.5 million since it was established in 2016. Most of the company's employees, represented by attorney Ofir Ronan, will be forced to leave.
