Lev Leviev - Business Interests

Business Interests

Leviev is an investor in the diamond industry, real estate and chemicals. Recently, Leviev hoped to get into the incarceration business, as a concessionaire for the first private prison in Israel. However, the Israeli High Court of Justice declared private prisons unconstitutional in Israel.

Leviev is currently controlling shareholder and chairman of Africa-Israel. Africa-Israel is on the verge of insolvency, asking to restructure NIS 21 billion of debt. Trying to save the company from bankruptcy, justice Varda Alshech has confirmed the debt-restructuring arrangement between Africa-Israel and its creditors. However, the justice expressed her disapproval: "The arrangement is far from being the best," Alshech said, because the company "is passing on the damage of its investments to its investors.". Additionally, he is an international investor in residential real estate, shopping malls, energy, fashion, telecommunications, and media, which attained a market value of $8 billion in 2007. The value of the company plunged with the onset of the 2007–2008 global financial crisis, with company debt reportedly totalling $5.5 billion in September 2009. Leviev had purchased 60% of the company in 1996 for $400 million.

Leviev owns diamond mines in Russia and Africa, and is a major competitor to the De Beers international diamond cartel.

In 2005, Africa-Israel completed a $230 million 5,800-apartment project in Modi'in Illit, an ultra-Orthadox city. In early 2007, Africa-Israel opened a luxury jewelry store on Old Bond Street in London and was considering plans to invest billions in the Far East, Argentina, Brazil and Russia. Soon thereafter the global sub-prime mortgage crisis broke, and the value of Africa-Israel's real estate investments plummeted, particularly in New York, where it had invested heavily.