Not only can you plant a tree in Israel, but you could buy a bank in Israel as well. Not just any old bank, mind you, but Bank Leumi, the country’s second-largest.

If you’re interested, next month Israel, as part of its ongoing drive to privatize its national industries, will issue an offering circular related to the proposed sale of its controlling 24% stake in the bank.

It’s anyone’s guess how the offering will be received, but there are already indications of solid interest. I’ve learned that a group of wealthy individuals and institutions from America, the United Kingdom, and Israel is actively exploring the formation of a consortium aimed at seeking control of the bank. Negotiations are said to be fairly advanced.

A member of the group, Israeli financier Isaac Devash, a former international mergers and acquisitions specialist at Credit Suisse First Boston, confirmed its existence and said a consortium could be finalized within a few weeks. He declined, though, to identify any of the involved parties, but indicated the welcome mat was out for more American investors.

The Ministry of Finance requires that bidders post a bond of $10 million and that any buyer hold its stake for a minimum of five years.

Bank Leumi, which has assets of about $60 billion, operates more than 300 branches and offices in 21 countries, 12 of which are in America. It was founded in 1904 by Theodor Herzl, the principal founder of Israel, as the Anglo-Palestine Bank, and assumed its present name in 1948. Its book value is about $3.6 billion; last year the bank earned $450 million.

Mr. Devash estimates the 24% stake could fetch between $700 million and $900 million, but the Israeli financier could be lowballing the potential purchase price. According to published reports in Israel, Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a former Israeli prime minister, earlier this month received a $900 million offer for the 24% stake from a group of investors, apparently from the U.K. The offer was the same as the value of the block of shares on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and reflected a market cap for the bank of almost $4 billion.

In response, Mr. Netanyahu, who confirmed the offer and described it as preliminary, told the group’s representatives that it was too low. But he did not rule it out and said it could be the basis for future negotiations.

Aside from the interest of the two groups, there are rumblings that New York’s acquisition-minded Cerebus Capital Management, which supervises funds and accounts with capital in excess of $14 billion, is also interested in acquiring Bank Leumi. Richard Auletta, a spokesman for Cerebus, one of whose advisers is Vice President Quayle, declined comment.

Like any business, Bank Leumi – which has had scandals involving money laundering and embezzlement – has its good and bad points. Mr. Devash views the bank’s strengths as a fine CEO, Galia Maor, a long and proud heritage, an international presence, diversified sources of income, high-quality industrial holdings, and a high potential for operational improvement.

The negatives, as Mr. Devash sees them: a strong and militant labor union; a potential for bidder liabilities, especially in real estate; extremely tight governmental regulations; the need to divest itself of its asset management business; and the necessity of having to adopt to a new set of international regulations known as Basel 2.

Daniel Doron, director of the Israel Center for social and economic progress, sees the potential sale of the controlling stake in Bank Leumi as a positive move for the bank and Israel in general. If it’s sold to a company with clout, it could give other Israeli banks a run for their money, he said. He also felt such a transaction could enable Israel to continue its push forward in the world’s financial markets, “moving it away from being a small, stagnant pond and into the bigger flow of the world’s financial seas.”

The effort to privatize Bank Leumi, which has two branches in Midtown Manhattan, is viewed as yet another major step in reforming the Israeli economy. In the past few years, privatization has been the name of the game in Israeli industry, sweeping through the national shipping, airline, and telecommunications sectors.