The controlling shareholder in Bank Hapoalim has sold 250 million shekels or US$69 million worth of shares in the largest lending institution in Israel. This sale was confirmed by the bank itself last Thursday.

20.3% of the bank is owned by Arison Holdings and 2.4% is owned by Salt of the Earth Ltd. Both of these shareholders are owned and/or controlled by Shari Arison.

According to the bank's statements, Salt forged a deal outside the market to sell off its 14.6 million shares of the bank. Each share was priced at 17.1 shekels per share. This is well below the closing price of the shares last Wednesday, which was pegged at 17.39 shekels per share. Prior to the sale, Salt had owned 31.75 million shares in the Israeli lender.

In late morning trading at Tel Aviv, share values of Hapoalim fell 1.7% to 17.09 shekels. This affected the overall value of the bank as about 65% of the total outstanding shares were publicly traded.

According to sources close to the deal, the sale of the shares were done to reduce the leverage available in Arison Investment firms. This process of divestment is expected to continue.