Businessman Alex Shnaider Capitalizes on Opportunity with Tel Aviv Company

From an early age, businessman Alex Shnaider understood how to capitalize on both risk and opportunity. He started his first company soon after graduating with honors from York University in Toronto and has never looked back.

A billionaire by 40, Shnaider cut his business teeth in the steel industry in Eastern Europe, first trading in steel, then buying steel mills. Alex Shnaider’s Midland Group is now a global investment holding company.

Mishorim and Alex Shnaider’s Midland Group

Alex Shnaider’s biography shows his aptitude as a global investor. He is the majority owner of  Mishorim Real Estate Investments, a public company traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange that owns commercial real estate in Israel and the United States. Mishorim is also the controlling shareholder in Skyline Investments Inc., which operates resorts and hotels in Canada and the United States.

Businesses associated with Shnaider have often enjoyed rapid success. Alex Shnaider’s Midland Group, founded in 1994, established itself as a global steel exporter by taking risks that others avoided. Shnaider specialized in finding the right opportunity at the right moment.

A Biography of Alex Shnaider: Recent Activities

As Alex Shnaider’s Midland Group thrived, he diversified into real estate and other private ventures aligning with his personal interests. By 2005, he was on the Forbes list of the world’s richest people.

Shnaider became a controlling owner in Mishorim in 2016 and has since acquired more shares to become the majority owner. The company owns more than $800 million in assets. One reason billionaire Alex Shnaider invested in the company was because he believed its holdings were underpriced and could generate substantial returns in the future.

Mishorim earlier this year announced that it was embarking on a $94 million USD urban renewal plan to develop a 15,000-square-meter project near the Yehuda Halevi light rail station in Tel Aviv, with rental housing, hotel rooms, office space, and other commercial uses. The company bought the land 27 years ago from a firm that included former Maccabi basketball star Miki Berkovich, considered one of Israel’s greatest athletes.

Mishorim’s CEO, Alon Waxman, noted that the firm’s strategy is to buy properties that have significant improvement potential and then develop them when the opportunity arises.

Unlike the years-long Tel Aviv project, one real estate deal earlier this year realized a 50 percent profit in just seven months. In February, Mishorim sold a floor in an Israeli office building to an American investor group, a property it had only purchased the previous September.

Another recent deal involved an Israeli complex that the company purchased in 2005 for 14.5 million shekels. Mishorim added renovations including solar power. The sales price for the fully leased parcel soared to about 46 million shekels.

Like businessman Alex Shnaider, Mishorim’s deals span the globe.

Mishorim sold a shopping center earlier this year in Newport, Virginia, for twice its 2016 purchase price. Last year it purchased Governor’s Marketplace, a $34 million commercial center in Tallahassee, the capital of Florida, which has an occupancy rate of 92.5 percent. It also sold another property in Jacksonville. It has properties throughout Florida, including Miami.

Alex Shnaider: Billionaire and Investor