One winner, one loser in Ofer brothers’ lottery worth billions
Live MintLondon/Tel Aviv: When Israel’s richest man died in 2011, the task of splitting his vast fortune came down to a simple lottery with just two tickets—both jackpots with billion-dollar payouts. Eyal, 66, took over Sammy’s stakes in Israel’s Mizrahi Tefahot Bank Ltd, property developer Melisron Ltd., real estate around the world, and a stake in Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. Idan got control of Israel’s largest public holding company and various tech investments. Tracking the value of his portfolio “doesn’t make me happy,” Idan says, munching chocolate-covered rice cakes in his bright corner office in London’s Mayfair neighbourhood, where a large black-and-white photo of his bespectacled father peers over his shoulder. “Discipline is very much his watchword.” If Eyal’s side resembles a classic, patriarchal family business, Idan’s is more an assemblage of bold moonshots. “But under his intellectual curiosity he has a hard edge.” Idan says real estate doesn’t interest him and he avoids mature markets for their slow growth.
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