Benny Landa’s business empire faces new legal challenge
Altana seeks insolvency proceedings against Landa Labs months after the collapse and sale of Landa Corporation.
Another complication for Benny Landa’s business empire? A petition to open insolvency proceedings against businessman Benny Landa’s company, Landa Labs, was filed on Tuesday with the Central District Court. The petition was submitted by Altana Netherlands B.V., the investment and financing arm of Germany’s Altana AG, a global developer and manufacturer of products for the coatings, paints, cosmetics, and printing industries.
Landa Labs, founded in 2012, serves as the innovation and research arm of the Landa Group. Both Altana and Landa Labs were previously shareholders in Landa Corporation, the Landa family-owned printing company that ran into financial difficulties last year and was recently sold to the FIMI fund through court-supervised proceedings.
According to the petition, Landa Labs allegedly failed to repay a €16 million loan provided by Altana, which matured on May 20, 2025. Altana claims that the company has not repaid either the principal or the accrued interest.
The petition further alleges that Landa Labs sought to secure a $10 million loan from Mizrahi Tefahot Bank to continue its operations. However, according to Altana, the bank withdrew its offer following the parallel insolvency proceedings involving another group company, Landa Corporation.
Altana argues that after negotiations between the parties failed and a formal repayment demand sent in January 2026 went unanswered, it was left with no choice but to seek a court order opening insolvency proceedings and appointing an officeholder to the company.
In the petition, filed by attorneys Guy Ido, Etai Shani, and Keren Reichbach-Segal of Gornitzky & Co., Altana states that:
“For a long time now, the company has been unable to meet its obligations to Altana. On May 20, 2025, the repayment date of a €16 million loan provided by the applicant arrived, yet the company, which does not dispute the existence of the debt, failed to repay either the loan or the accrued interest. In an effort to avoid legal proceedings, Altana conducted lengthy negotiations with the company regarding revised repayment terms, but the parties failed to reach an agreement.”
The petition further states: “Requests made by the applicant for financial information to which it is entitled under the loan agreement revealed that the company’s financial condition is extremely difficult. It is unable to repay its debt and lacks sufficient cash reserves to cover its current expenses, relying instead on loans provided from time to time by its controlling shareholder and other parties. While these facts alone are sufficient to indicate insolvency, it appears that the company’s debt to the applicant is only one layer of its financial distress and that it has additional liabilities it is unable to repay.”
Altana also claims that in April, during negotiations between the parties, Landa Labs explicitly acknowledged that its financial condition did not allow it to repay the loan on schedule and requested an amendment to the loan agreement, including postponing repayment until the end of December 2026.
Benny Landa, 80, built his reputation as the founder of Indigo, which he established in 1977. Indigo developed digital printing technology for the commercial and industrial printing markets and was sold to HP in 2001. The acquisition turned Indigo into a division of HP’s printing business and remains one of the most significant exits in Israeli high-tech history.
Following the sale of Indigo, Landa founded the Landa Group, focusing on nanotechnology-based innovations in printing, energy, and materials. Out of this effort emerged Landa Digital Printing (Landa Corporation), which sought to replicate Indigo’s success with its Nanography technology, a digital printing process based on nano-pigment inks aimed at the packaging and commercial printing industries.
For years, Landa Digital Printing was regarded as one of the printing industry’s most promising technological ventures. However, the company required substantial investments in research and development, manufacturing, installations, and customer support, and failed to reach profitability before entering insolvency proceedings.
In September 2025, the Central District Court approved Landa Corporation’s debt settlement plan, under which FIMI acquired the company for $80 million. The company had sought court protection in June 2025 after accumulating debts of approximately NIS 1.7 billion, leading the court to appoint administrators.
Landa’s difficulties extended beyond the printing business. Lusix, his lab-grown diamond company, was hit by the global collapse in synthetic diamond prices, entered insolvency proceedings, and was ultimately sold at the end of 2024 to the Belgian-Indian Phoenix Group for approximately $4 million.
Landa Labs did not respond to requests for comment. The court has not yet ruled on the petition.
