The businessman Eliezer Fishman died tonight at the age of 80.
Until about seven years ago, Fishman was one of the most prominent businessmen in the economy. He owned a number of companies and activities such as the Jerusalem Economic Real Estate Company, Durban Industrial Buildings (Mevana) and Mirland which operated in Russia. Fishman was also previously the owner of the Globes newspaper, a partner in Hot, Visa Cal, Home Center, Fishman Networks and more.
About 18 years ago Fishman got involved with a failed bet on the Turkish lira and companies under his control lost hundreds of millions of shekels. This forced him to liquidate quite a few assets, but he continued to be active in business terms.
closure
Fishman during a legal hearing Photo: Ofer Vakanin
Fishman during a legal hearing Photo: Ofer Vakanin
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In 2016, the Tax Authority began rolling the snowball that led to his being declared bankrupt due to huge debts of several billion shekels to banks led by Hapoalim and Oumi. At the end of the process Fishman lost most of the companies he owned, which were sold in order to reduce his debts and was actually declared bankrupt.
His children Anat, Ronit and Eyal, and his wife Tova, remained with some of the real estate and assets that the family owned, including Home Center and Fishman chains.
high leverage
Fishman began his business career in the 1970s when he founded an accounting office in Tel Aviv. In the early 1980s he established trust funds in the name of his daughters Ronit and Anat. At first the value of these funds grew rapidly during the boom years in the stock market. However, after that, due to falls in the stock market, Schwain fell sharply and Fishman took time to cover the debts accumulated following the fall at that time.
Together with American investors, in 1989 he acquired control of the real estate company Economic Jerusalem, which was sold in a privatization process by the State of Israel. A few years later, Economic Jerusalem took over industrial buildings, also through the purchase of shares held by the state. Later, Fishman purchased shares of his partners and became the sole controlling owner of the economy.
30 years ago he entered the retail business and founded the Fishman Chains Group. Later he also took over the communication company Kvi Zahav and purchased about 33% of the shares of the “Yediot Ahronoth” group from Tami and Ze’ev Mozes for about one billion shekels.
In 1999, Fishman took over “Globes” newspaper, after the death of his partner at the time, Haim Bar On (after his bankruptcy, shares in the newspaper were sold to Haim’s daughter, Alona Bar On). Later he made additional purchases, most of which were characterized by taking high leverage. There were years when Fishman was one of the largest borrowers of the Israeli banking system.