Avigal Soreq has been appointed the next CEO of El Al and replaces Gonen Ushishkin

Avigal Soreq, a former senior executive at Alon USA, controlled by Dudi Weissman and Shraga Biran, has been appointed the next CEO of El Al. Soreq will receive a salary that will be under the limits of the Ministry of Finance's efficiency program and will not be higher than the 20% cut of outgoing CEO Gonen Ussishkin.
Sorek's significant challenges will be raising $ 250 million in bond issuance, as El Al is rapidly advancing into a liquidity crisis after $ 150 million remains in its coffers at the end of the third quarter of 2020, and it has to repay a $ 240 million debt to canceled flight ticket buyers , Interest and foreign exchange - which resulted in a loss of $ 97 million.

El Al lost $ 147 million in the third quarter of 2020 - the quarter that usually earns it the most money per year, compared to a profit of $ 27 million in the corresponding quarter in 2019. This huge loss is not even the most amazing thing in the company's recent financial report.
Nine months into the corona crisis, as International Air Transport Organization (IAEA) forecasts for corporate losses in 2020 and 2021 become increasingly pessimistic, the company's accountants from BDO Haft still believe there is no need for a provision for even a dollar depreciation, on An aircraft fleet with a balance sheet value of $ 2.2 billion.
El Al's revenue fell 94% in the third quarter of 2020 compared to the same quarter in 2019, to $ 39 million. Revenue from passenger flights amounted to a staggering amount of only $ 8 million, compared to $ 597 million in the same quarter last year, following a 99.9% decrease in the number of passengers weighted by km. Revenue from cargo flying decreased by 28% in the last quarter compared to 2019. And totaled $ 23 million, following a 63% drop in weighted tonne km that the company flew.
El Al suffered a gross loss of $ 61 million in the third quarter of 2020, compared to a gross profit of $ 142 million in the same quarter in 2019. This is despite a $ 405 million decrease in operating expenses (amid a $ 133 million decrease in jet fuel expenses, following a 96% drop in the amount of fuel consumed), and a $ 114 million decrease in payroll expenses. Expenditure on actual jet fuel was higher because a $ 14 million loss on jet fuel hedging was classified as financing expenses, as the company hedged a significantly larger amount than it consumed, which made hedging considered ineffective.
A 88% drop in selling expenses and a 48% drop in executive and general expenses only moderated the transition to an operating loss of $ 109 million in the third quarter of 2020, compared to an operating profit of $ 58 million in parallel in 2019. The company's financing expenses increased by 78% in the third quarter of 2020 compared to the corresponding quarter in 2019, and amounted to $ 40 million - mainly due to the classification of the loss from the jet fuel hedge to the financing item.
What deepened the company's net profit was a provision of $ 30 million for layoffs, against the background of streamlining agreements signed but not yet in effect - a provision partially offset by the cancellation of the $ 9 million provision for the state lawsuit, compared to $ 5.5 million in aircraft sales in the same quarter last year. -2019.
El Al's current operations generated a $ 34 million deficit in the company's cash flow. But that number is misleading because it includes a $ 66 million withdrawal from the company's employees' compensation fund. Although El Al has raised $ 150 million, its cash balance as of the end of September 2020 amounts to only $ 150 million - and it still has to repay significant obligations to ticket holders whose flights have been canceled, to financial institutions you have hedged jet fuel transactions, and to interest and foreign exchange.
The balance of liabilities to ticket holders whose flights have been canceled to date amounts to $ 240 million, of which $ 39 million for vouchers asked for issuance to ticket buyers worth 125% of the balance of liabilities, instead of cash repayment. El Al also owes $ 48 million for hedging 73% of planned jet fuel consumption for the next 12 months, and 34% of expected consumption in the fourth quarter of 2020. The company had to pay $ 8 million in cash for these losses in the fourth quarter of 2020.
El Al also hedged the variable interest rate on 28% of the loans it received, and as of the end of the third quarter of 2020, it lost $ 42 million on these transactions. A hedge of the dollar against the wine led to an additional loss of $ 6 million.