IDB Holding, the parent company of the Israel Discount Bank Group, has appointed Avital Bar-Dayan as vice president of investor relations.
She joins from the Tel Aviv-based rating agency Midroog, a Moody’s subsidiary, where she was an executive vice president for eight years.
Prior to this, Bar-Dayan served eight years as head of research at Ofek Securities and Investments, the brokerage arm of Bank Leumi, Israel’s leading commercial bank.
She holds a BA in economics and agriculture from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an MBA from Bar Ilan University.
The IDB Group is owned by Israeli businessman Nochi Dankner, who made headlines by investing his family fortune in the company at the height of the Palestinian uprising in 2003. IDB has grown to become the country’s largest holding company with total assets of more than $35 bn.
Its financial state has severely deteriorated since the beginning of the year, however, and the company is now suspected of being on the brink of bankruptcy. Its stock price is currently worth a third of its January value and a 10th of its highest level in 2010.
The group holds diversified interests including mobile operator Cellcom Israel, electronics group Elron, leading retail chain Shufersal, daily newspaper Maariv, Clal Insurance and real estate company PBC Corp. IDB also holds a 2.3 percent stake in global banking group Credit Suisse.
