Nochi Dankner’s IDB group captured the attention of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange on Wednesday after TheMarker revealed that the U.S. hedge fund York Capital Management is mounting a takeover bid.

Oct.11, 2012 | 4:00 AM–Prices for bonds of IDB Development Corporation, the company being targeted by York, soared as its Series Zion through Yud issues rose between 11% and 22%. IDB Holding Corporation, its parent company, saw its bond prices fall 4.5%.

TheMarker reported Wednesday that York has bought up about a fifth of IDB Development’s publicly traded debt in a bid to gain control of the company, which is not publicly traded, through a debt-for-equity swap. Market sources said the divergence between the two companies’ bond prices reflected an assessment that if York is successful, it will leave IDB Holdings without its chief asset, rendering its bonds worthless.

The TA-25 index edged down 0.1% yesterday to finish at 1,206.41 points after clawing back most of its losses from earlier in the session. The broader TA-100 lost 0.2% to 1,067.48 and the Real Estate-15 index declined 0.7% to 269.84. Technology shares paced the market lower, with the BlueTech-50 index down 0.5% to 338.01. The TA-Banking index advanced 0.6% to 1,042.12.

The downturn yesterday extended a bout of profit-taking on a rally in shares during the High Holidays during which TASE shares outperformed global indices by some 10%. Sentiment was also hurt by the negative trend on Wall Street overnight, which weighed on arbitrage stocks in Tel Aviv, and yesterday in Europe.

Global shares fell for a third day on yesterday as warnings of slower growth from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and U.S. multinationals underscored concerns about a sluggish world economy…Read More>>

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