Israel’s new Finance Minister Yair Lapid has come out publicly against the proposed sale of Israel Chemicals Ltd. to Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. The minister informed senior finance ministry officials that he is strongly opposed to the sale of ICL and that he would conduct “an aggressive policy to defend Israel’s natural resources.”
The finance minister stressed that the natural resources belong to the Israeli public and they are the ones that must be the first to benefit. Lapid also announced that he planned to set up a public committee to review all of the state’s rights in natural resources that are managed by private companies. Israeli government approval of any deal is necessary as the state holds a ‘golden share’ in ICL since the mid-90s when the company was privatized.
Earlier in the day ICL CEO Stefan Borgas said that there are no talks at the moment with PotashCorp. But he stressed that “ICL would be stronger, not weaker, following such a deal, but that depends on the details and strategy.”
Shares of ICL fell by 4.5 percent in very heavy volume in response to the announcement.