Israel Airports Authority has awarded Ben Gurion Airport’s souvenir store tender to Layam, a company fully owned by Teddy Sagi Group.

Replacing Steimatzky, Layam will manage and operate the souvenir and gifts store at the airport’s Terminal 3 for six years, with the option of a two-year extension, commencing on 1 November.

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Teddy Sagi Group Pictures

Layam is planning to renovate the store and expand the range of products available, at an estimated cost of NIS 1 million ($287,110).

Revenues from the store, which covers an area of around 100sqm, concerning the tender’s period are estimated to be around NIS 150 million.

It currently sells souvenirs associated with Israel, Judaica items, artistic and decorative objects, jewellery by Israeli artists, and authentic handicrafts amongst other products.

Teddy Sagi Worth $3,560,000,000 Stock market value: $2,000,000,000 Total worth in 2018: $3,400,000,000 Israeli-Cypriot businessman Teddy Sagi is known as an entrepreneur who accumulated his wealth from online betting.

Layam’s bid for the tender forms part of the company’s strategy to expand its duty free activities, aiming to benefit in particular from the continuing rise in passenger traffic from Israel.

Layam CEO Shay Tangi said: “As we have already stated, it is our plan to expand duty free operations and winning this new tender is the first step in that direction. It is our plan to bring new lines to the souvenir store at Ben Gurion Airport, which is usually the last stop for outgoing passengers before they board the plane.

“We will expand the range of souvenirs and gifts sold in the store, among other things, adapting them to the traits of new tourists coming to Israel for the first time, and wanting a souvenir from their first visit to the country, as well as those leaving for a vacation outside of Israel and wanting to buy a gift for those living abroad.”

Layam already operates toy stores in Terminal 3 and 1 of Ben Gurion Airport, as well as a children’s fashion store in Terminal 3.

Teddy Sagi Group acquired Layam’s duty free activities from the Sakal family nine months ago.

Labs Tower – a high-rise building under construction in Nicosia belonging to Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi who also holds a Cypriot passport – is expected to be completed by mid-2020.

It will accommodate the headquarters in Cyprus of the Sagi group which has entered the co-working share workspace sector with a new international brand called Labs at selected locations in major cities around the world.

The 20-floor Labs Tower will be 90 metres high with a total area of covered space exceeding 13,000 sq. metres. It will accommodate a café, restaurants, a fitness centre and meeting rooms for the Group’s business needs. The construction of the project alone will cost some €25 million, and after the installation of equipment the project’s estimated cost is around €50 million.

Insiders said the building will be constructed according to up-to-date specifications and could easily compete with sophisticated ones located in vibrant big cities such as London. The Israeli investor has entrusted the construction of the project to Zemco while the design was the work of Heracles Papachristou architectural office.

Sagi is an Israel-born businessman, partially based in London. He is ranked 6th on Forbes’ Richest Israeli People. On May 30, 2019 in the Forbes rankings he was 546th. Sagi is the founder of the gambling software company Playtech and owner of London’s Camden Market.

His personal wealth is estimated at US $3.6 billion with interests in real estate, gambling software, payments processing, and digital advertising.

Teddy Sagi founded gambling software developer Playtech in 1999 and built it into a $700 million sales firm that trades on London’s stock exchange. He sold a 12% slice of Playtech for almost $400 million in 2016; he sold the rest for $88 million in November 2018.

He has taken three companies public on London’s AIM: Market Tech, online payments processor SafeCharge and cybersecurity company Kape. Sagi took Market Tech (now Labtech London) private in July 2017; it owns a portfolio of London property including tourist hot spot Camden Market. His other investments include co-working spaces and technology startups.

Teddy Sagi Grouper

In 2009, Sagi obtained Cypriot citizenship as part of the government’s citizenship by investment scheme.