"It's incredible. It looks like something is going down that we know nothing about," exclaimed a market player on Tuesday, as shares of AFI Development, the Russian operations subsidiary of Africa Israel Investments, plunged 17%. For the second day in a row, that is. Moreover, AFI dived against an uptrend in the markets. Clearly, investors are jittery.
Indeed, the entire Lev Leviev group of real estate companies seems shrouded in uncertainty as the credit crisis shakes the financial markets of the world and sends real estate markets reeling - especially in the United States and Russia, which are key spheres of action for Leviev.
It turns out that not only investors are losing sleep over holdings in Leviev's companies. So are Israel's big banks, Hapoalim and Leumi. Leviev is being asked to buttress the securities backing loans to his group by giving the banks liens on an addition 10%-20% of Africa Israel's shares.
