He arranged to meet me in the hotel lobby, and at the last moment his driver asked me to accompany him to a private room.
I entered the room and noticed him sitting at the table with a lit cigar, a glass of whisky and almonds on a small plate.
I sat down and he began to share.
Somewhere at the beginning of the millennium a group of us investors came together to buy agricultural land in a foreign country and improve it. Each of the investors set up his own company in the target country; 2 of the investors led the whole move.
We checked the land, found it legally clean, and purchased it.
The leaders of the move began planning proceedings, and despite the many conversations I had with them, in which I tried to explain that the area, the population and the distance from the big city were not suitable for their plans, and when they prepared plans I commented on the absence of public spaces, gardens, educational institutions and a shopping center, all my comments were always dismissed with replies like “you don't understand,” “it'll be fine... the municipality will take care of it,” and similar statements.
And then... 2008. A global crisis. Real estate prices collapsed. The plans went into a drawer and were forgotten.
We stayed in touch over the years. Each of the investors looked for a way to extract his investment and looked for buyers (for himself or for the whole group). From time to time offers came, but the prices offered would have caused a large loss and they passed.
And here he drew me into his story again. About three years ago a tempting offer arrived that, on its face, seemed it would get everyone out with a small profit. They came to the office, coordinated among themselves who would do what, gave me a power of attorney and equipped me with red lines for the negotiation. We held Zoom calls with the potential buyers, built an outline for the deal and signed a preliminary agreement.
Here the problems started to surface: it turned out that more than 10 years earlier the land had gone through a rezoning process, and now the municipality was demanding a higher tax than the investors had originally thought; the buyers, who had made completion of the purchase conditional on their planning proceedings, needed more time than they had thought and it was necessary to agree to extensions; one of the companies had frozen its activity to avoid expenses and now had to be revived and reactivated; and more...
Over the last 3 years I untangled one knot after another, made quite a few trips, calls, meetings and sessions to handle the deal and advance it. Shortly before the holidays the final deal was signed.
Stories are based on real situations, with identifying details changed. Not legal advice.
Translated from the Hebrew original. עברית