Former Netanyahu adviser brings family real estate firm to TASE with NIS 250M bond pl

The bond issue is also expected to serve as the company’s first test of the public market ahead of a possible future share offering, though it is not yet clear whether or when such an IPO would take place.

Against the backdrop of current difficulties in the real estate market, companies in the sector seeking to go public have increasingly opted to raise bonds first, with the aim of preparing for a later equity offering. The trend began about two years ago with companies including Amram Avraham and BSR.

Sanilevich Real Estate, where Sani serves as CEO, owns a major income-producing real estate project in Neve Ne’eman Park in Hod Hasharon. The complex was originally developed by his father, Haim, who died 13 years ago, together with two partners. Haim Sanilevich began his career as a farmer before moving into real estate.

In 2020, talks began to acquire the complex from the two partners, who wanted to sell their stakes. AFI Properties and the Sanilevich family bought the partners’ combined two-thirds stake for NIS 440 million, reflecting a valuation of NIS 656 million. AFI Properties acquired a 50% stake in the complex for NIS 328 million.

The park currently includes 48,000 square meters of built space, with three additional buildings planned: an 82,000-square-meter office tower, another 20,000-square-meter office building and a senior housing facility on a 65,000-square-meter site. The company also owns another two dunams in the complex earmarked for future construction.

Tenants at the park include Merck Israel, Valens, Harman-Samsung and others.

Another asset slated to be included in the publicly traded company is more than 200 dunams of agricultural land in Tel Mond, held jointly by Sanilevich and Tzachi Nachmias’ Mega Or. The goal is to have the land rezoned for logistics use.

A third property is a 190-dunam site in Hadera, in which the family owns one-third of the rights. The plan is to rezone the site for residential development and possibly energy-related uses, such as a power plant or data center.

The family owns additional agricultural land that will not be transferred into the publicly traded company and will remain privately held.

Media reports have previously said that Sanilevich was seeking to establish a hospital in Albania together with Yardena Ovadia. He also owns a digital bank and companies in the real estate and tourism sectors in the country.

Sanilevich served as an adviser to Netanyahu from 2006 to 2011, though the two are not believed to have any relationship today.

In May, the Israeli investigative program “Uvda” reported that Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, a close friend of Sanilevich, had complained to him about pressure allegedly exerted on Rama on Netanyahu’s behalf to appoint Nicole Raidman, an associate of Sara Netanyahu, as Albania’s honorary consul in Israel.