Jerusalem, Sept 21 - Private equity fund Markstone Capital Group has bid as much as $800 million to acquire Israeli food and dairy group Tnuva, Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported on Thursday.
The bid for Tnuva, Israel's largest food company, was between $700 million and $800 million and U.S. investment banking giant Goldman Sachs had agreed to participate in its funding, the newspaper said, citing sources in the capital market.
Markstone officials declined to comment while Tnuva officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Tnuva reported revenues of 5.3 billion shekels ($1.2 billion) in 2005, up 4 percent from the previous year, and net profits of 202 million shekels, up 33 percent from 2004, Yedioth said.
Tnuva is a cooperative owned by various Israeli kibbutzim -- collective farms.