Community Hedge Fund Exits Substantial Stake in Bazan After 190% Surge
Community hedge fund, led by Jeremy Blank, sold 100 million shekels worth of Bazan shares, exiting its substantial shareholder status after a 190% surge in stock value driven by soaring refining margins.
Community hedge fund, managed by Jeremy Blank, is finalizing a successful stock divestment in Bazan. Over recent weeks, the hedge fund sold shares of the Haifa oil refinery company worth approximately 100 million shekels, ceasing to be a substantial shareholder in the firm. This comes nearly two years after it first disclosed its stake in Bazan stock, which has completed a surge of almost 190% over the past year.
Significant Returns and Strategic Selloff
Over the past few weeks, the fund sold roughly a quarter of its Bazan shares, representing 1.7% of Bazan's share capital, through a series of stock exchange transactions yielding about 100 million shekels. Following this move, Community retains holdings valued at approximately 350 million shekels (4.9%). The fact that it is no longer a substantial shareholder may allow the fund to liquidate the remainder of its holding without mandatory reporting.
The sale of shares represents significant value creation for Community, after it acquired Bazan shares on several occasions last year, becoming a substantial shareholder.
Since those purchases, Bazan's stock has soared, bringing the fund a profit (mostly on paper so far) of roughly a quarter of a billion shekels on its investment.
Refining Margins Drive the Surge
Community fund is led by Jeremy Blank, who previously headed the American hedge fund York Capital's operations in Israel, formerly the controlling owner of Psagot Investment House. Last year, following the acquisition of Bazan shares, Blank acted as an intermediary in a deal where the refinery acquired a 52% controlling stake in the American oil company Cantium for 100 million dollars from that same York fund.
Blank's value creation in Bazan comes amid a continuous rise in the share price, which has jumped by about 150% since the beginning of the year to a market capitalization of approximately 7 billion shekels. This is thanks to a jump in refining margins—the gap between the price of the refineries' raw material (crude oil) and the price of the products derived from them (gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel) sold to customers, a figure that heavily impacts the profitability of companies in the sector.
