Yitzhak Tshuva is an Israeli billionaire businessman. He is the chairman of El-Ad Group, which owned the New York Plaza Hotel. He also owns the Israeli conglomerate Delek Group. In 2014, he was listed by Forbes as the seventh wealthiest Israeli. His personal wealth is estimated to be $4.2 billion as of 2019.
Childhood
Tshuva was born to a Jewish family in Tripoli, Libya, in 1948. Around this time, his paternal grandfather, Rabbi Yosef Tshuva, was murdered in the pogroms in Libya. When Yitzhak Tshuva was six months old, his parents, Rachamin and Julia, and their eight children emigrated to Israel as part of the Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries. They settled near the city of Netanya, initially living in a transit camp. Tshuva studied at the "Yavne" primary school. At the age of 12, Tshuva began working to support his family by taking on construction and farming jobs. He did his mandatory military service in the Israel Defense Forces in the Engineering Corps. After his service, he began working in the construction and engineering department of the Israeli Defense Ministry, where he was responsible for a variety of construction projects, primarily on military bases all over the country. One of these projects included the construction of fortifications along the Bar Lev Line, near the Suez Canal, after Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt in the 1967 Six-Day War.
Career
Beginnings
In the 1970s, Tshuva became a developer of low-income neighborhoods, primarily in his home town of Netanya. He was involved in the construction of hundreds of apartments in the city. In 1978, Tshuva joined local politics by founding the "Manof" party. At the 1978 municipal elections, Manof won three seats in the Netanya city council. In his capacity as member of the Netanya city council, Yitzhak Tshuva was in charge of construction, development, and neighborhood restoration. In the 1980s, Tshuva initiated a number of large residency and commercial projects across Israel. In 1988, Yitzhak Tshuva and his family immigrated to the United States for a number of years. During this time, he was involved in the construction of many real estate projects in New Jersey and New York City.
El Ad holdings
In 1992, Tshuva founded El Ad Holdings which manages the majority of his real estate transactions in North America. In the mid 1990s, El Ad Group purchased thousands of residential and commercial properties in New York and Florida, and in the Canadian cities of Toronto and Montreal. It also purchased thousands of rental properties on the west coast of the United States. In 2004, El Ad Group purchased the Plaza Hotel in New York City for $675mn from the Saudi investor, Al-Waleed bin Talal. El Ad Group sold 182 residential apartments prior to the hotel's renewed opening in 2008. Apartments were sold for record breaking prices in Manhattan at the time. This transaction was said to have garnered about $1bn. In 2013, El Ad Group sold its share of the hotel and surrounding commercial property.
Delek Group
Tshuva's major business breakthrough came in 1998, when he managed to gain control of Delek Israel Fuel Corporation from the Recanati family's Israel Discount Bank Holdings. Tshuva grew Delek Group into an energy company dealing with petrol, natural gas, insurance, biochemistry, armored vehicles and the like. As of 2014, Delek Group's market value was about $4.5bn.
Gas discoveries
Delek discovered offshore natural gas reserves in Israel and Cyprus. In January 2009, 320 billion cubic meters of gas reserves were discovered in the "Tamar 1" and "Dalit" gas fields. The drilling, close to Israel's shores, was carried out by Delek Group and an American company, Noble Energy. In 2010, gas reserves of 600 billion cubic meters were discovered in the Leviathan gas field. Later, gas reserves were also discovered in drillings at "Dolphin", "Tanin", and "Block 12" in Cyprus. The discoveries by Delek Group have reduced Israel's dependence on foreign energy sources. These reserves can accommodate Israel's predicted energy requirements for the next few decades while enabling the export of natural gas.
Family
Tshuva and his wife, Haya, live in Netanya. They have five children.
