After a long period in which it issued no response to reports to this effect, the board of directors of ZIM Integrated Shipping Services (NYSE: ZIM) confirmed today that «for the past several months» it has been examining strategic alternatives for the company, after its CEO Eli Glickman together with Rami Ungar, whose interests include shipping, real estate, and vehicle imports, made a non-binding preliminary offer to buy all of the shares in ZIM.
Reports in the past that Glickman was putting together such a proposal with Ungar were neither confirmed nor denied officially. Today’s announcement states: «Following the receipt of a preliminary, non-binding proposal to acquire all the outstanding ordinary shares of the company from Eli Glickman, the company’s Chief Executive Officer and President, and Rami Ungar, ZIM’s board of directors promptly commenced a strategic review of alternatives.»
As far as is known, the board decided not to proceed with the offer from Glickman and Ungar.
«The review, which has been ongoing for the past several months, includes consideration of potential value creation alternatives, including a sale of the company and capital allocation and return opportunities, with the goal of maximizing shareholder value,» today’s announcement states, and continues, «In connection with this review, the ZIM board of directors has received indications of interest from multiple parties, including strategic interest, which it is evaluating carefully.»
The ZIM board has engaged Evercore as its financial advisor and Meitar Law Offices and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP as its legal counsel.
ZIM’s share price is currently up by around 6% in response to the announcement.
The company cautions that «there is no assurance that any transaction will occur as a result of this review of alternatives and the ZIM Board of Directors does not expect to provide updates regarding this review until an agreement is reached or the review is otherwise completed.»
ZIM was floated on the New York Stock Exchange nearly five years ago at a post-money valuation of $1.7 billion. Since then the company’s share price has been rather volatile, in response to fluctuations in shipping prices. At the peak, the company had a market cap of some $10 billion, while the low two years ago was under $1 billion. The current market cap is $2.2 billion. At the end of the third quarter the company had over $3.1 billion cash.
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Last year, Idan Ofer’s Kenon Holdings, which had been the controlling shareholder in ZIM, sold its remaining shares at a large profit. Shortly afterwards, the Street Insider website reported that Glickman was considering a management buyout of the company.
Glickman has been CEO of ZIM since July 2017. Before that he was CEO of Israel Electric Corporation and deputy CEO of Partner Communications (TASE: PTNR). In his military service he was commander of the Shayetet 13 naval commando. He told «Globes in the past that when he came to ZIM, the company «was facing insolvency — it’s no secret.»
«When they approached me to become CEO of ZIM I said, ‘What? Am I crazy?’. It took more than six months of approaches and in the end I decided to come because of two things: the challenge and the compensation. I took a big personal risk to my credit when I came to a company like ZIM,» Glickman said then.
A group of Israeli shareholders holding a total of 8% of ZIM’s shares recently requested to appoint three directors on its behalf, to be voted on at the forthcoming shareholders meeting in December. For its part, ZIM has announced the appointment of two new directors: former supervisor of banks at the Bank of Israel Yair Avidan, and Dr. Yoram Turbowicz, a former competition commissioner and head of the prime minister’s bureau.
Published by Globes, Israel business news — en.globes.co.il — on November 25, 2025.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.
