TAKE A LOOK AND LEARN THE FACTS / \---, H nothing about the beverage mar- ket and was destroying Tempo. Since then, the major share- holders did their best to prove their superiority over each other and gain control of the company. One of the more drastic devel- opments occurred last August, when the Tel Aviv Stock Ex- change was at an all-time low. Mr. Podhorzer decided to take advantage of the situation and acquired 20 percent of Tempo's stock from mutual funds, in- creasing his personal stake to 44.5 percent. One day later, Mr. Bar pur- chased an additional 4.5 percent share of Tempo, increasing his holding to 51 percent. The addi- tional shares were purchased at a price 250 percent above mar- ket value. Yet what seemed at the mo- ment as at least a tactical victo- ry for Mr. Bar proved to have been the straw that broke Heineken's strategic patience. Hardly before he could bask in his little coup, Mr. Bar learned that the Dutch were threatening to cancel Tempo's exclusive li- cense to manufacture and dis- tribute its beers in Israel unless one of the major shareholders sold his stake, thus allowing Heineken to become a full- fledged partner in the company. The mere thought of Heineken carrying out its threat sufficed for the major shareholders to reach a compromise — adminis- tered by advocate Ram Caspi — by which Mr. Podhorzer has giv- en an irrevocable option to sell his 44.5 percent share in Tempo, for $42 million, to the Dutch Heineken group or the Bar group. Ultimately, Heineken pur- chased Mr. Podhorzer's entire stake and a portion of the shares owned by Mr. Bar and Mr. Born- stein's grandchild, Amir. Tempo was valued at about $93 million on..the day the deal was reached — more than 40 percent higher than its stock market value that day, and still far higher than its current $75 million Tel Aviv Stock Exchange value. Mr. Podhorzer apparently finds solace in the fact that while he is giving up on Tempo, he has not ceded its control to Mr. Bar. According to the agreement, had Mr. Bar exercised his 90-day op- tion, he would have had to sell his shares to Heineken. In other words, Mr. Podhorzer made the sale of his shares subject to them winding up in Heineken's hands. Exercise of the option was also subject to Heineken holding at least 50 percent of the shares in Tempo. This means that Bar would have had to sell Heineken at least another 5.5 percent of his shares. Assuming Heineken goes ahead with its plans to invest in Tempo, it will be joining a long list of multinational firms that have recently entered the Israeli beverage and food sector through partnership agreements with lo- cal manufacturers. Prominent among these are Nestle, which after having tak- en over Osem is also joining hands with Tnuva; Unilever which has created a partnership with Strauss; and Copenhagen- based Carlsberg which has es- tablished a brewery in Ashkelon in partnership with Coca Cola Is- rael's Central Bottling Compa- ny. This globalization trend has enabled local manufacturers to diversify their basket of products and take advantage of the multi- nationals' technology, know-how and experience as well as mar- keting and distribution ability. The multinationals are strate- gically interested in establishing an Israeli presence in an attempt to spread their reach across a Middle East where they forecast considerable growth opportuni- ties in upcoming years. It remains to be seen whether after completion of the Pod- horzer-Bar-Heineken agreement Tempo's beer and soft drinks businesses will remain under one roof, since Pepsi has an option on 50 percent of the shares of the soft-drinks division. Though it is too soon to an- nounce any definite changes, Mr. Bar says one option is to re- structure the company so that Heineken will ultimately become a shareholder together with Tem- po in the beer business. "This would enter it a split-up of the com- pany into two entities," he says. At any rate, now that the pow- er struggles which have plagued its balance sheets are over, Tem- po can finally go ahead with de- velopment and growth plans. Senior managers will no longer have an excuse for poor perfor- mance, and might be forced to re- sign for ill-advised business decisions, as Managing Director Dan Bibro, along with his na- tional sales manager, marketing manager and other senior exec- utives, already have last year. Tempo's financial statements for 1996 will be published later this month, and there are already indications that the company's performance was worse than the previous year. Though it is still too early to make predictions, it is already clear that Tempo's new leader- ship, led by Yaki Vadmany, in- tends to make major cut-backs in an attempt to improve the company's performance by the summer, when the beverage in- dustry's activity is at its peak. According to Mr. Bar, the com- pany will lay off about 100 of their 1,200 workers, merge ac- tivities, transfer some operations to subcontractors and imple- ment other cost-cutting mea- sures. 0 We invite you to visit our quality, progressive and individualized program for children ages 18 months to 6 years old. ni=rWitiW"$0;!'' • MAKE A COMPARISON ■ Affordable fees 18 mos. - 2'a years old: $34/day 2'a - 6 years old: $27/day, based on five full days ■ Low teacher/child ratio ■ Certified teachers ■ Extended day/no additional charge (7:00 a.m. 6:00 p.m.) - ■ Integrated Jewish curriculum ■ Summer day camp ■ Only closed on major holidays ■ Transitional kindergarten/kindergarten (810) 661-3630 OR (810) KID-CARE Next time you feed your face, think about your heart. Go easy on your heart and start cutting back on foods that are high in saturated fat and cholesterol. The change'll do you good. WE'RE FIGHTING FOR YOUR LIFE American Heart Association V