Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd (GILT)

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Gilat Satellite Networks chairman Baharav will buy shares from York Capital alongside FIMI.

Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. (Nasdaq: GILT; TASE: GILT) chairman Dov Baharav will buy 850,000 Gilat shares from York Capital, representing 2% of the company, for $4.2 million. The sale to Baharav, alongside the agreement to sell 12% of Gilat to FIMI Opportunity Funds, controlled by Ishay Davidi, will liquidate York's entire holding in Gilat. FIMI will be the controlling shareholder in the satellite ground stations company, with a 35% total stake.

York Capital, under Jeremy Blank, has held its stake in Gilat for eight years, and is ending what has been a fairly disappointing investment. York currently owns some six million shares, of which 5.2 million will be sold to FIMI, under the agreement between the two funds, for $25.5 million. The share price in that deal is $4.95, and York will sell the rest of its shares to Baharav at the same price. The sale is due to close next month.

Gilat Satellite Networks, managed by Erez Antebi, develops and sells very small aperture terminal (VSAT) satellite ground station equipment for satellite-based broadband communications. It is traded on Nasdaq and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange at a market cap of $207 million. Baharav, formerly CEO of Amdocs Ltd. (Nasdaq: DOX) and chairman of Israel Aerospace Industries, joined the Gilat board this year as part of an activist move by FIMI. He became chairman in place of Amiram Levinberg, one of Gilat's founders, who resigned from the post.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 22, 2014