Globes is reporting that Eli Rozenberg has tendered an offer to buy El Al.
The offer is $75MM for a 45% share of the airline. Presumably that would buy off the controlling Borovitz family, who currently own 38% of the airline. 8% is owned by Pinchas Ginsburg and the rest is publicly traded.
The Borovitz family has been widely panned for running the airline into the ground well before COVID-19.
Eli Rozenberg is the 30 year old (at least according to Globes, as media reports previously said he was 20) Israeli son of Kenny Rozenberg, US owner of Centers Heath Care nursing homes. Israeli’s golden share of El Al requires that the owner of El Al be Israeli, so the offer had to come from Eli.
The offer would preempt the public offering that would be backstopped by the Israeli government.
It’s also about a quarter of the list price of a single Dreamliner. It’s certainly buying low, but the airline faces incredible challenges going forward.
Relationships with labor and customers have never been as poisoned as they are now, but perhaps things could be turned around under new ownership with fresh ideas? It will take a complete culture change to win customers back in an era where El Al’s market share has dwindled as customers flee to foreign carriers.
Then again, the fastest way to become a millionaire is to start as a billionaire and buy an airline. If the offer is accepted I wish the Rozenbergs the best of luck. They’re going to need it to turn that ship around!
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119 Comments On "30 Year Old Eli Rozenberg Tenders Offer To Buy Controlling Stake In El Al For $75 Million"
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better to light the money on fire for warmth in the winter. much better return than owning an airline
Fascinating remark. Surely that’s your opinion now just for the corona special, but not in general.
Also, when travel is in full swing, how does an airline lose money when their flights are usually packed?
El Al was losing money before the coronavirus was around. It’s been mismanaged for some time.
Thank you Dan, that was my point. I’ve read (and shared) your gripes with them for may years, I just don’t understand how an airline that charges a lot and is usually booked, can go under.
If your costs are higher than your income,it dont make a difference how high your income is…
I don’t know if you’re being sarcastic or not. But honestly revenue vs income and two seconds of thought.
Shkoyach, is your parameter of success a measurement of how full a flight it? If United has full flights from EWR to FLL (but each ticket was $15, before taxes), is that success? Alternatively, there have been busy routes which charged “normal” fares, which weren’t as profitable as one would imagine.
Huh? When was the last time elal had seats for tower air prices?
Service, bad. Management, bad.
Flights, full. Prices, high.
I’m no genius, but the guy selling soup with a nasty attitude had a line out his door. Was he also going bankrupt by selling so much over priced soup?
Soup Nazi?
Not when you have a guaranteed amount of orthodox and religious passengers who you know will use your airline no matter what. They can be a profitable niche airline. plus, you have the unltimate backing of the Israeli government since the air line is a national security issue. If you play your card right, you can turn a dime or 2.
But what do I know, I am only an internet coupon chaser.
There’s no genius in filling a plane.
Filling a plane profitably is what takes hard work.
Well… A killer reward program w/ a CC will be a start.
Hi Dan, I don’t know much about the airline business – do we have any estimates for El-Al’s break-even price for a coach seat NYCTLV? And how it compares with United or others? And I would assume peak/non-peak makes a huge difference. It’s a tough business that’s usually low-margin unless you’ve successfully conspired with a government for a ‘protected’ (monopoly) route (like US Domestic routes, protected from foreign flag carriers). Would the new El-Al qualify for any protected routes? Do they have any now?
Proprietary info.
El Al doesn’t fly domestic.
Elifalefel77, think outside of the “Brooklyn box”. ElAl serves many markets which don’t have a guaranteed supply of Orthodox Jews. A few come to my mind (San Fran, Vegas, Orlando, Boston, Zurich, Lisbon… ) Why not try to capture a wider audience with a premium product?
@Dave I think your idea is great. Was only pointing the obvious, if NYC metro is my bread and butter market, it only makes sense to start to build from there up. But yes, you are absolutely correct. The issue with a premium product is that you also have to make a premium investment which it seems like something elal was trying hard to avoid. It worked for the gulf countries , cause they had a lot of cash to bounce. Anyway, would love to see elal being a source of pride to the country and people of israel.
Elifalefel77, fair points and I value the discussion. Assume ElAl becomes a remarkable “niche” airline for the frum *and* one happens to live in the NYC area. Is that enough for loyalty? In the supermarket I have a choice between a yeshivish-branded ketchup and Heinz Ketchup. I’m going with Heinz because of superior quality and taste, and better value for price. Many Frum Jews will continue to go with United/Delta until ElAl establishes themselves as the quality of “Heinz ketchup” (for our analogy) regardless if ownership davens 3x daily or not.
@Dave So all the yeashiva branded product has to do is throw in some incentives to make you switch. that’s easy.
Regardless , elal needs a good rewards program.
Simple! Premium is counter cultural to the Israeli way of life. They simply cannot do premium on a large scale.
The Rosenbergs are Americans.
Right.
You just bundled ALL the isralies in one bunch and categorized them as X.
Hashem yaazor.
It doesnt change the fact that the society, as currently constituted, cant do it
Israeli companies/society in general don’t give/expect customer service. Its a mentality and I don’t think you have to take it negatively. That’s just how business works and in my opinion one of the main reasons Americans don’t like flying El AL.
The only way to reel in a guaranteed amount of religious passengers is with low fares.
+1
@dan would you consider going on as an adviser ?
I’d certainly consider it, though I doubt that offer is coming based on my history of shining a bright light on airline wrongdoings.
Maybe to redo their FF program
The FFP needs to be burned to the ground and redone.
If the new owner is smart they’ll consult with you. You’re exactly what the company needs specially because you have a history of shining a bright light on airline wrongdoings.
Correcting airline wrongdoings isn’t so hard. The harder part is minimizing the expense of correcting!
Dan, if you become COO of ElAl, will you still have time to post deals?
If you did that your disclaimers would have to get a whole lot longer…
how much did the Borovitz family buy it for back in the day?
They bought it from the state in 2004. I’m not sure if the number is public, but I’d assume they would be selling at a loss here.
His plan is likely to sell off the parts if they are crazy enough to sell it to him.
I doubt he would be allowed to do that.
what’d happen if Gd forbid something would happen to Eli and Elal would be inherited by a non-Israeli?
You mean his father?
If push comes to shove, the government could set a deadline to find a suitable investor — to take a large enough stake — or controlling structure to satisfy a nationality-based condition for control. It wouldn’t be the first time that a deceased person’s estate has assets whose ownership and control has attached conditions limiting the disposition of the assets from an estate.
Is he frum?
Why is that a relevant question?
shomer shabbos?
What difference does that make? He could be a Rosh Yeshiva. You still shouldn’t take the flight landing 3 hours before candle lighting, still can’t eat fresh unwrapped meals, and likely still not going to have solo-gender flights.
But a frum owner can/may slowly change and take incremental steps to change the culture so we don’t have to make those decisions hopefully. Remember what a Rav once told me they will not see Bracha until they adhere more to halacha.
OD, valid and well said points. Indeed the ElAl culture has been discourteous (mild way of saying it) towards the frum population. However, I still think several frum people need to do “their part” by not landing too close to shabbos before we even dream of a new airline.
Why should I remember what a nameless rov told a nameless commenter?
Michoel, if it takes a Rov (nameless or not) for you to know not to internationally land 2PM for a 4PM candle-lighting then בְּבַקָשָׁה…..
“Remember what a Rav once told me they will not see Bracha until they adhere more to halacha.“
This is what I was referring to.
I believe the parent comment was missing an ‘I’ at the beginning.
Sure. And all those who are pious and strict with halacha are wildly. successful. The wealthiest Jews are not frum. We dont know GD’s chesboinos
I’m completely confused. Why would they have single gender flights? Is there some new Reform halacha about that? It’s El Al not a company owned by Taliban Jihadis?
You guys totally live in NY. Solo gender flights in 2020. Yeah, totally viable. If only everyone was as concerned with all of yoreh deah etc since.they are SO makpid on women. Give me a break
He’s is from and shomer shabbos – from Wesley Hills/Monsey
Yes he is a frum shomer shabbos hatzolah member from Monsey
The problem with El Al is that although it privatized, it is stuck with the historic terrible Histadrut labor agreements. Too many employees, and crazy pilot salaries.They need to wipe the slate clean and start from scratch. I went from only flying El Al to total loyalty to United, do to the benefits from the Mileage Plus program and all the upgrades that I have received as a 1K and a few years as Global services. Every few years El Al offers me to return as a Platinum, but I couldn’t even get an extra legroom seat!
El Al’s product is the fundamental problem. While there are some people who want to fly El Al for safety purposes or for supporting Israel, at the end of the day, the DL and UA offerings are just better if you are looking at it purely on the product. This is the case in Coach or Business.
Now granted, El Al did upgrade the business class seats and that truly makes a difference since you are not flying with 1989 seats — but that may not be enough without a wholesale change in service too.
The only place El Al has a true market advantage are in markets that only they serve (i.e. MIA, LAX)….but that’s not enough
In my humble opinion the main issue is the pilots. Despite the Histadrut agreement they already said they would go on strike the minute they get a chance, if they don’t get the salary and benefits they request.
They think we cant run the airline without them, given that they need to be Israeli (and in the past, ex-military). And I doubt there is an excess supply of pilots out there willing to work for less.
The rest can be fixed.. Matmid, culture, etc. IMHO
Is it a law or LY policy that pilots must be Israeli?
I started looking into aviation law, and just the part about pilot registration is hundreds of page.. so haven’t found the right part yet.
In any event, pilots need to also get a license from shabak, and I find it hard to believe shabak would give approval to non-israelis
Why do you think not? I believe the Shabak requirement is for PPL as well or CPL, and isn’t necessarily an ATP requirement.
As such there is no reason to presume foreigners wouldn’t qualify. I would also note that Israel doesn’t have reciprocal pilot licensing requirements. An EU or USA license is tough to convert, although ElAl pilots non-ex-military probably do convert them. it isn’t practical to get the hours in Israel and its enormously expensive. rental rates on the hour in the US run 89-300 for two seater – complex, In Israel they start at about 300.
That being said, international pilots on widebodies are earning 150k+ and narrow bodies start at roughly 75+. By Israeli standard those are reasonably comfortable salaries and I wonder if they are actually getting paid that well. I wonder if this specifically is the cause of their lack of profitability…
You have to be an Israeli citizen. Most El Al pilots make 100,000-150,000 Shekel/month, that’s way more than $150K/year.
Wow, that is an incredibly high salary number, and could definitely contribute seriously to the lack of profitability for the airline.
Would be interesting to see what the executives salary is.
Where would you get that data. Its exceedingly hard to believe that a job which doesn’t require much in the way of schooling would pay so well. Why isn’t everyone pilots in Israel, thee aren’t many Israeli jobs that pay that well for salary based non-risk work.
Cost of a CPL in the USA runs at 60-100k USD (including PPL, IFR, HP/C MER and CFI/I) from as little as two months to a year full time, then they can begin earning money and usually qualify for ATP in two-three years.
Although admittedly pilots have high intelligence, Why are they making over a million Sheq/year. It seems to me to be totally bizarre, especially if you add in the benefits and expenses paid lifestyle. Most medical professionals aren’t making that type of money in Israel.
Sounds quite unbelievable. If there are limitless air force pilots, that should drive salaries down not up.
El Al pilots are among the best paid in the world. Plenty of ex-air force pilots want to work for El Al. In addition there are Israeli pilots flying for other airlines, including regional airlines in the US.
They also seem to have a rule that the ceo must come from the air force. Business credentials doesn’t matter.
Presumably, as a condition to buying it, they would have to inject additional capital. Otherwise, just paying to buy out the Borowitz’s isn’t helpful.
Why does the owner need to be Israeli?
Israel owns a golden share of El Al and that’s one of the terms it has.
I never understood why LY never tried for connecting traffic. To maximize profitably and fill flights, I’d encourage the new owners to do what every flag carrier does feed short haul (Europe) and with long haul traffic (North America/Asia) and vice versa.
Agreed.
Unfortunately:
– TLV security makes transiting much harder than other Middle East airports.
– LY security makes it harder for many people (really this is Israeli government mandated but still affects LY)
– LY’s inability to fly over many nearby countries makes for longer flights than if flying other airlines and transiting through their hubs.
– Not flying on Shabbat and Chagim means fewer days when people would want to transit.
– Even transiting in TLV to a domestic connection (really just Eilat) involves a terminal change which isn’t as quick as it is in the US.
Dan, in your opinion, how much cash would Rosenberg need to pump in after buying, to get the airline up to par?
Impossible to answer without studying the balance sheet.
I think 99 cents.
It’s ELAL, do you think it will ever be worth more than a dollar?
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/.premium-how-tami-mozes-borovitz-brought-el-al-down-before-the-coronavirus-1.8932536
The way she ‘ran it into the ground’ seems to be doing stuff we all agree with – like not operating on Shabbat, helping find seats for women seated next to men…
This article in Haaretz is very anti Religious
It was run into the ground by getting a reputation for being anti consumer and rapidly losing money and market share with a lack of innovation.
We don’t all agree with those things. While I agree with and support the airline not flying on Shabbat (while also recognizing that this impacts profitability), I am opposed to them moving female passengers around to accommodate those who refuse to sit next to a passenger of the opposite gender. If someone wants to ensure that they do not sit next to a woman, they should buy 2 seats.
I gave several suggestions to El Al executives on how to solve that problem. Fell on deaf ears, but perhaps new management can fix the problem.
What were your suggestions?
@dan would you be so kind to share your suggestions?
For the charedi seat problems?
There are a few, here’s the easiest one:
https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/airlines/el-al/el-al-ceo-refusing-sit-next-another-passenger-will-result-immediate-ejection-plane/
You may want to work on your reading comprehension skills. Nothing “very anti Religious” in the article.
Perhaps we’ll see some American/more worldly ideas infused into Matmid (maybe another U.S. credit card?)…
I told a Matmid executive that many years ago. Never went anywhere.
Does the 20-30 year old guy play the miles and points game with bank cards of his own?
If so, then there may be some hope for others. I can’t see myself wanting to bank lots of Matmid points.
He is a frum boy in his 20’s. I grew up with him.
Eli is 26 and currently learning in kollel in the Mir
Assuming he’s married at least he qualifies for an exception to the ban on foreigners so at least he come get to the El Al office in Tel Aviv lol
If he’s a foreigner then he wouldn’t be able to buy El Al.
Maybe he was waiting in line last week at the misrad hapinim to get his citizenship and ID 🙂
He has dual citizenship.
That’s what I assumed.
So far the media has reported 20 and 30 and now we have 26, what’s up with that?
I went to yeshiva with him…
were u at his birthday parties too?
maybe he just did a calculation that if he went to Yeshiva with him 10 years ago when he was 16, the guy probly aged 10 years since them… not exactly rocket science…
Tower Air went under even though all flights would be full to capacity.
B/c the price for jet fuel in Bangor, Maine went up.
You will never know Nachtomis’s secret sauce!
Tower Air didn’t go under. It was made to disappear. I discussed it in full detail with the CEO of Tower.
Yep lol! No comparison.
Oooh this sounds good, can you please elaborate?
Let’s say one simple point tat we all need to remember: In the end of the day you need to know why you are loyal to and in this case its should be the customer. all have Unions and all have issues and ELAL is not remembering this small issue.
I am a platinum Member of Delta and was before by ELAL and this is one small difference.
Maybe Eli can send me say $20 million and I will save him the rest. What a horrible idea
The Rozenberg family are wonderful people and everything they do is with class. They are frum and kind. I think their buying the airline would be good for AM YISROEL.
2 things that have been barely been touched in the comments
Cargo
Very very extensive passenger security
Because the majority of DansDeals readers never flew cargo
(And those who did it didn’t live to comment on it :-))
Ok. What about them. Please enlighten us.
Air Cargo can be profitable and add to the revenue stream
No airline in the world has the same costs incurred for providing passenger, cargo, and equipment security.
When discussing whether the airline is worth salvaging, these 2 items need to be factored in.
Eli is the son of Kenny Rozenberg, US owner of Centers Heath Care nursing homes and if any of you know of anything about nursing owners, they are generally very wealthy people. Notice it stated ‘homes’ NOT home so this man is well situated and can easily swing this deal if the State of Israel and ELAL’s board will go along with the sale. Mr. Rozenberg is far from an amateur and he will call in a team of financial experts to go over everything with leaving no stone turned over. He’ll draw on experts from the US on how to run an airline efficiently NOT the Israel way which allowed it to fall apart. Eli could be 12 for that matter as I had a friend in university who was 15 and he was a junior and would graduate when he was 16 1/2. I wish the Rozenberg’s hatzlacha iin this interesting venture
I happen to know a few nursing home owners and I’ll say that your comment about them being very wealthy is not true.
https://www.investing.com/equities/el-al-balance-sheet
A billion of debt, another billion of lease obligations, negligible operating profit over the last couple of years.
Dan, Would u serve as their CEO???
I’m pretty sure they have a dartboard with my face on it.
Dan, I’m pretty sure the dartboard of my face in bigger! 🙂
LOL
I did bring you up in my interviews with Matmid.
I’m sure they had only lovely things to say about me. 🙂 Looking forward to the end of our lawsuit against EL AL in less than 12 months! I wish Kenny Rosenberg luck. He’s going to need it more than he can imagine.
Keep us posted!
Will do!