The Ofer Brothers Group () was an Israeli family shipping business started by the billionaire Ofer family which is today known as XT Group.

History

Sammy Ofer Sammy Ofer (; born Shmuel Herskovich; 22 February 1922 – 3 June 2011) was an Israeli shipping magnate and one of the richest men in the country. Early life Shmuel Herskovich was born in 1922 in Galați, Romania, to a Jewish family.John ReedId ...

KBE KBE may refer to: * Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, post-nominal letters * Knowledge-based engineering Knowledge-based engineering (KBE) is the application of knowledge-based systems technology to the domain o ...

(22 February 1922 – 3 June 2011) born in

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

, and brother Yuli Ofer (1924 - 11 September 2011), established the Ofer Brothers shipping company in the 1950s. The Ofer Holdings Group dealt in property in Israel. The company branched out into aviation, high-tech, private equity, insurance, media and real estate. It became known as XT Group in November 2012 and is jointly owned by Idan Ofer and Udi Angel. Shares in

Israel Corporation Israel Corporation () (also Israel Corp) is Israel's largest holding company. It was founded in 1968 by the Government of the State of Israel. 50% of its manufacturing activities and 70% of its consolidated revenues derive from global operati ...

, one of Israel's largest holding companies, were acquired by the Ofer family in 1999, with the then Ofer Holdings acquiring a stake as part of the extended group. The company's holdings include Zim,

Israel Chemicals ICL Group Ltd. (Hebrew: איי.סי. אל. גרופ בע"מ) (formerly Israel Chemicals Ltd., ICL) is a multi-national manufacturing concern that develops, produces and markets fertilizers, metals and other special-purpose chemical products. I ...

Oil Refineries Ltd BAZAN Group (BAZAN, ), formerly Oil Refineries Ltd. (ORL), is an oil refining and petrochemicals company located in Haifa Bay, Israel. It operates the largest oil refinery in the country. ORL has a total oil refining capacity of approximately 9 ...

(BAZAN) in

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

Tower Semiconductor Tower Semiconductor Ltd. is an Israeli company that manufactures integrated circuits using specialty process technologies, including SiGe, BiCMOS, Silicon Photonics, SOI, mixed-signal and RFCMOS, CMOS image sensors, non-imaging sensors, power m ...

and more. The Ofer family is one of 20 families that control 25% of Israel's exchange-listed companies. On May 24, 2011 the

US State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...

imposed sanctions on the company for violating the Iranian sanctions regime. According to the State Department, an Ofer subsidiary based in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

had sold a ship to Iran in 2010. Former

Mossad The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations (), popularly known as Mossad ( , ), is the national intelligence agency of the Israel, State of Israel. It is one of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community, along with M ...

director

Meir Dagan Aluf Meir Dagan (; 30 January 1945 – 17 March 2016) was an Israel Defense Forces Major General (reserve) and Director of the Mossad. Personal life and education Meir Huberman (later Dagan) was born on a train on the outskirts of Kherson, b ...

has said that he does not believe any laws were broken by the company's business dealings in Iran, which according to company statements involved the transport of oil and

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring un ...

products in a manner permitted under the sanctions regime. Prime Minister

Benjamin Netanyahu Benjamin Netanyahu (born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who has served as the prime minister of Israel since 2022, having previously held the office from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021. Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime min ...

s office denied allegations that the company's dealings in Iran had been authorized by the State of Israel. After Sammy Ofer's death in 2011, Netanyahu made a public statement commending Ofer as a "true

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

". On 3 June 2011, Sammy Ofer died at his

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

home at the age of 89. On 11 September 2011, Yuli Ofer died at his

Herzliya Herzliya ( ; , / ) is an affluent List of Israeli cities, city in the Israeli coastal plain, central coast of Israel, at the northern part of the Tel Aviv District, known for its robust start-up and entrepreneurial culture. In it had a populatio ...

home at the age of 87. After Sammy's death, the company was divided between his sons;

Eyal Eyal (; ''lit.'' strength) is a kibbutz in the Central District of Israel. Located close to the Green line, it falls under the jurisdiction of the Drom HaSharon Regional Council. In it had a population of . Geography Eyal is located in centr ...

received the company's hotel and cruise operations and his younger brother Idan received

, a 9.7% stake in Mizrahi Tefahot Bank, and XT Shipping (part of XT Group, formerly Ofer Holdings). The current chairman and joint owner of XT group is Udi Angel.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Ofer Brothers

XT Holdings
Ofer family Israeli businesspeople Shipping companies of Israel Israeli people of Romanian-Jewish descent

History

See also

References

External links