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Walt Mossberg: I'm amazed how Israel has changed
The "Wall Street Journal" columnist told the Israel Business Conference that the cellular age was in its infancy.
Noa Parag 11 Dec 07 15:57
"I see Israel as a technology country. This is my first visit here in 32 years, and I'm amazed how everything has changed. That such a small country has such a large presence in key industries is amazing," said "Wall Street Journal" technology columnist Walt Mossberg at the "Range of opportunities in the Internet and media" panel at the "Globes" Israel Business Conference yesterday.
Mossberg added, "We're in a very special period of technological change. The way we use technology affects the media industry. This year, we're celebrating the 30th anniversary of the personal computer, and the Internet era continues to expand."
Mossberg said that the cellular revolution was in its infancy. "The iPhone already enables cellular surfing. Naturally, there were some compromises en route, but the birth of the pocket computer was the turning point. In the next two years, we'll see more and more people keeping their documents online and not in the actual computer. In this way, no matter where you go, you'll have access to your documents."
In response to panel chairman Dr. Yossi Vardi request to summarize the Internet industry leaders, Mossberg said, "Microsoft chairman Bill Gates is a genius and a very tough businessman. Apple CEO Steve Jobs is both tough and a genius in some ways. Former Yahoo! CEO Terry Semel is very smart, but found it hard to run an Internet company. As for AOL founder Steve Case, the name America Online says it all. Google is a brilliant company. They're trying to break the cellular companies' monopoly. There is concern that they're trying to do too many things, and they have a somewhat arrogant culture."
Commenting on Rupert Murdoch, the new owner of the "Wall Street Journal", Mossberg said, "He is a perfect man, a god. Seriously, however, he is a very smart man, and is very excited to be the owner of our newspaper."
As for "The New York Times", Mossberg said, "It is a great journalist enterprise. I read the paper every day. It faces the same challenges faced by every large media enterprise. The "Washington Post" faces the same dilemma. It is one of the few newspapers that dares to criticize the administration and be independent. Like the others, it too faces economic problems."
Mossberg says that he has no problems with bloggers. "Like everything, some bloggers have no ethics and others do."
Mossberg said, "Nokia's operating system is awful compared with the iPhone. The company must get better and intensify its efforts."
Mossberg concluded, "In ten years, I believe that most readers will be online. I assume that's already true for my readers. I hope that our paper will be in good shape."
Other panelists included Google managing director Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa Mohammad Gawdat, and News Corporation executive VP and News Corporation Europe chairman VP Martin Pompadur.
Gawdat said, "I'm very excited to be here. I'm from Egypt, and it's exciting for me to speak before an Israeli audience." He added that the Internet revolution was just getting started. "The number will only go up, and the technology will only improve. In emerging market, only 11% of the population - 162 million people - is online. This proportion will rise to 40%. There is also room for Israeli Internet market to grow," he said.
Gawdat said, "There are four categories of developing markets. Israel is an amazing country, and is in the first category."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 11, 2007
Miracle in the Holy Land
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119707331817717861.html
>>
By MATTHEW KAMINSKI
December 8, 2007
Jerusalem
'Here is the past," says Benjamin Netanyahu. "That's the future." The Likud leader, at his Knesset office, is talking about Jerusalem and Tel Aviv -- less than an hour's drive apart but on different planets. If regional turmoil and political intrigue hang heavy over this ancient capital, the party town along the Mediterranean brims with entrepreneurial energy. And of late, Tel Aviv's youthful, capitalist spirit is rubbing off on the rest of Israel.
Little noticed amid the grim Middle East headlines, a Jewish state founded by European socialists and long hobbled by stagnant growth and inflation is turning into a mature market economy. This ongoing transformation is no less dramatic than Eastern Europe's since 1989.
In the past half-generation, an economy dominated by the state and monopolies began to join the outside world. But it was a dose of shock therapy, Israeli-style, in 2003 that jolted the country out of its deep sleep. That year, when Mr. Netanyahu took over the finance ministry, a deep recession and debt burden put Israel, in his words, "on the verge of an Argentina-like collapse." Subsequent cuts in welfare benefits, the removal of remaining currency and capital controls, and liberalization of the banking sector didn't make Mr. Netanyahu many friends. But today even his detractors, hardly an elite club in Israel, credit him for the recovery.
The third consecutive year of strong growth, up to 5.5% in 2007, is driven by exports of software, pharmaceuticals, consulting and other services. The 2,500 or so hi-tech start-ups located in and around Tel Aviv and Haifa give the coast the feel of Silicon Valley, only with a Gaza Strip down the road. Israelis are now investing heavily abroad. Only the U.S. and Canada have more technology companies listed on American exchanges than Israel.
Signaling that these changes are supposed to be permanent, the government in 2005 tapped a new central bank chief whom Israeli politicians couldn't easily push around. Stanley Fischer made his name at MIT and later as No. 2 at the IMF. Born in today's Zambia, he first came to Israel at 17 to work on a kibbutz. Upon his return two years ago, he found that socialist traditions today coexist with a modernizing economy -- even at the Bank of Israel. His staff went on strike last month, a reminder of organized labor's sway in the country.
But he sees the trend lines going in the other direction. "As the economy develops, the power relations will change," Mr. Fischer says, pointing out that unions went along with Mr. Netanyahu's budget cuts, labor reforms and the slow shift to private pension schemes. Taxes are falling, though with the top individual rate at 44% they are still high.
"The government has been squeezed very hard in the last four to five years," he adds, with spending down from 52% of GDP, on par with Scandinavian countries, in 2003. "Hopefully we'll finish this year at 45% or below."
In a 1997 speech in Hong Kong, Mr. Fischer called for the IMF to push countries to gradually remove restrictions on capital flows. His experience in Israel has shown that liberalization is more important than he thought. "This economy is totally changed -- but totally changed -- from 15 years ago when it had capital controls," he says. "I knew the technical issues of getting rid of capital controls. What I didn't realize is that it also forces people to change their approach."
In a protected economy, business focuses on local markets and exports. "The full opening of the capital account in the context of globalization made everyone realize they had to compete in the world," he says. "Israeli businessmen are of a different quality than 15 years ago."
Israel hasn't had reason to regret it. Inflation is around 2%, down from 400% in the 1980s. The country is unaffected by the subprime shake-out. With the shekel stable, Mr. Fischer doesn't have a weakening currency on his hands as does his most famous graduate student from his MIT days, Fed chief Ben Bernanke. "Whatever exchange rate system you have, there will be days when you wished you had another one," Mr. Fischer says with a smile. But, "so far, so good."
The Netanyahu reforms shook up the structure of the economy without changing the country's political culture. Spending pressures are re-emerging. The state owns too much land -- "only 93%," deadpans Mr. Netanyahu, now in opposition. Israel needs a far more serious dose of liberalization to become another Ireland, a small, low-tax, investment-driven boom economy. "Trying to explain market economics to our politicians is like trying to explain sex to a eunuch," says Daniel Doron, who runs the Center for Social and Economic Progress in Tel Aviv.
Israel can't afford a return to expensive welfare policies. It already spends north of 8% of GDP on defense. This won't soon change. The economy is handicapped by the lowest labor participation rate of any developed country. One in four ultra-Orthodox working-age Jewish men, and about as few Israeli Arab women, hold down jobs. That leaves only 37% of Israelis in the work force, compared with around 45% in a typical Western country. As a result income per worker is on par with Europe, notes economist Omer Moav, but per capita significantly lower.
With the right policies, Mr. Netanyahu says, Israel could grow at an Irish-like 8% for a decade. But its experience already shows that strong human capital and an opening market are the best resources any country could ask for -- a good lesson for the oil-rich Middle East. And while far from finished, the mini-revolution of recent years ties Israel into the world, and vice-versa. That's good news for its future prosperity and security.
[Economic] Miracle in the Holy Land
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119707331817717861.html
>>
By MATTHEW KAMINSKI
December 8, 2007
Jerusalem
'Here is the past," says Benjamin Netanyahu. "That's the future." The Likud leader, at his Knesset office, is talking about Jerusalem and Tel Aviv -- less than an hour's drive apart but on different planets. If regional turmoil and political intrigue hang heavy over this ancient capital, the party town along the Mediterranean brims with entrepreneurial energy. And of late, Tel Aviv's youthful, capitalist spirit is rubbing off on the rest of Israel.
Little noticed amid the grim Middle East headlines, a Jewish state founded by European socialists and long hobbled by stagnant growth and inflation is turning into a mature market economy. This ongoing transformation is no less dramatic than Eastern Europe's since 1989.
In the past half-generation, an economy dominated by the state and monopolies began to join the outside world. But it was a dose of shock therapy, Israeli-style, in 2003 that jolted the country out of its deep sleep. That year, when Mr. Netanyahu took over the finance ministry, a deep recession and debt burden put Israel, in his words, "on the verge of an Argentina-like collapse." Subsequent cuts in welfare benefits, the removal of remaining currency and capital controls, and liberalization of the banking sector didn't make Mr. Netanyahu many friends. But today even his detractors, hardly an elite club in Israel, credit him for the recovery.
The third consecutive year of strong growth, up to 5.5% in 2007, is driven by exports of software, pharmaceuticals, consulting and other services. The 2,500 or so hi-tech start-ups located in and around Tel Aviv and Haifa give the coast the feel of Silicon Valley, only with a Gaza Strip down the road. Israelis are now investing heavily abroad. Only the U.S. and Canada have more technology companies listed on American exchanges than Israel.
Signaling that these changes are supposed to be permanent, the government in 2005 tapped a new central bank chief whom Israeli politicians couldn't easily push around. Stanley Fischer made his name at MIT and later as No. 2 at the IMF. Born in today's Zambia, he first came to Israel at 17 to work on a kibbutz. Upon his return two years ago, he found that socialist traditions today coexist with a modernizing economy -- even at the Bank of Israel. His staff went on strike last month, a reminder of organized labor's sway in the country.
But he sees the trend lines going in the other direction. "As the economy develops, the power relations will change," Mr. Fischer says, pointing out that unions went along with Mr. Netanyahu's budget cuts, labor reforms and the slow shift to private pension schemes. Taxes are falling, though with the top individual rate at 44% they are still high.
"The government has been squeezed very hard in the last four to five years," he adds, with spending down from 52% of GDP, on par with Scandinavian countries, in 2003. "Hopefully we'll finish this year at 45% or below."
In a 1997 speech in Hong Kong, Mr. Fischer called for the IMF to push countries to gradually remove restrictions on capital flows. His experience in Israel has shown that liberalization is more important than he thought. "This economy is totally changed -- but totally changed -- from 15 years ago when it had capital controls," he says. "I knew the technical issues of getting rid of capital controls. What I didn't realize is that it also forces people to change their approach."
In a protected economy, business focuses on local markets and exports. "The full opening of the capital account in the context of globalization made everyone realize they had to compete in the world," he says. "Israeli businessmen are of a different quality than 15 years ago."
Israel hasn't had reason to regret it. Inflation is around 2%, down from 400% in the 1980s. The country is unaffected by the subprime shake-out. With the shekel stable, Mr. Fischer doesn't have a weakening currency on his hands as does his most famous graduate student from his MIT days, Fed chief Ben Bernanke. "Whatever exchange rate system you have, there will be days when you wished you had another one," Mr. Fischer says with a smile. But, "so far, so good."
The Netanyahu reforms shook up the structure of the economy without changing the country's political culture. Spending pressures are re-emerging. The state owns too much land -- "only 93%," deadpans Mr. Netanyahu, now in opposition. Israel needs a far more serious dose of liberalization to become another Ireland, a small, low-tax, investment-driven boom economy. "Trying to explain market economics to our politicians is like trying to explain sex to a eunuch," says Daniel Doron, who runs the Center for Social and Economic Progress in Tel Aviv.
Israel can't afford a return to expensive welfare policies. It already spends north of 8% of GDP on defense. This won't soon change. The economy is handicapped by the lowest labor participation rate of any developed country. One in four ultra-Orthodox working-age Jewish men, and about as few Israeli Arab women, hold down jobs. That leaves only 37% of Israelis in the work force, compared with around 45% in a typical Western country. As a result income per worker is on par with Europe, notes economist Omer Moav, but per capita significantly lower.
With the right policies, Mr. Netanyahu says, Israel could grow at an Irish-like 8% for a decade. But its experience already shows that strong human capital and an opening market are the best resources any country could ask for -- a good lesson for the oil-rich Middle East. And while far from finished, the mini-revolution of recent years ties Israel into the world, and vice-versa. That's good news for its future prosperity and security.
<<
Israelis among world leaders in Internet usage
Broadband use in Israel is higher than in the US and the UK.
Noa Parag 5 Dec 07 18:42
The Israeli surfer ranks second worldwide in the number hours spent surfing the Internet, with an average of 37.4 hours a month, according to a survey by D&B Israel. The rate of use was higher among people using broadband Internet, with an average of 38.8 hours, compared with 10.9 hours on average among people using slow connections.
The survey also revealed that the rate of penetration of broadband Internet services to the Israeli market is one of the highest in the world. Israel was ranked sixth at the end of 2006, with a rate of 68.79% to Jewish households alone. Ahead of Israel in the world rankings were South Korea, Monaco, Hong Kong, Iceland, Singapore, the Netherlands, and Denmark. Israel's high ranking is especially interesting, given that the UK was ranked in 20th place and the US 25th.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on December 5,
America Online turns to Israeli technology to take it into the future
By Nicky Blackburn November 13, 2007
When US Internet giant America Online wants to go shopping for new Internet technologies, it heads to Israel. In less than a week, the Time Warner subsidiary has purchased two Israeli companies - Internet advertising technology company Quigo Technologies, for an estimated $350 million, and now search technology start-up Yedda, for an undisclosed sum.
Yedda, a web 2.0 company, has developed a semantic search engine that differs from regular text-based search engines such as YahooAnswers or GoogleAnswers because it can automatically match questions to other related questions and topics, and select the best available users to answer the question. The patent-pending technology, which went live in August last year, intelligently routes questions to relevant communities of Internet users, sending out e-mails or instant messages to 'experts', and creating a large community of people who can discuss and learn from each other's experiences. Content is rated for quality. This is the first Israeli Web 2.0 technology exit.
"In the course of our daily lives we often leverage the experience and expertise of friends, colleagues and professionals like doctors and lawyers to get answers to questions we have," said Ron Grant, president and COO of AOL in a statement. "Incorporating Yedda's unique technology into AOL enables us to bring together our traditional search resources and an entire community of people to help users quickly find answers to questions."
"It's about connecting people and benefiting from people's experiences rather than sifting through large amounts of content and reading a lot of articles to get an answer to your question," Avichay Niessenbaum, Yedda's CEO, told Reuters.
While some see AOL's purchase of Yedda as an attempt to beat its rivals, Google and Yahoo in the questions and answers game, some experts are suggesting that AOL is taking a longer-term look at the industry and using the Yedda purchase to move into the social networking arena.
Yedda (the Hebrew word for knowledge) was founded in Kfar Malal in 2006 by Niessenbaum and Yaniv Golan and to date raised $2.5 million from Israeli venture capital company Genesis Partners and private investors. It employs 20. In the wake of the purchase, thought to be worth tens of millions of dollars, Yedda will incorporate the questions and answer functionality into select programming on AOL.com and will further integrate "Questions & Answers" into its experiences in the coming months.
The Israeli company, which currently has 800,000 visitors to its site, and 5 million visitors through partner sites, will remain independent, functioning as a wholly-owned subsidiary of AOL in Europe and the US. R&D will remain in Israel. Yedda will also continue to hunt for strategic partnerships with other content sites, distributors, and medica companies around the world to promote 'knowledge communities".
Niessenbaum, 41, told Israel's financial daily, Globes that when the deal is completed, AOL's 100 million-strong Internet community would turn Yedda into one of the largest personal knowledge centers in the world and a primary source for surfers seeking the experience and know-how of others.
"Our vision is fully compatible with the vision and strategy of AOL," he said. "The platform that Yedda provides a broad network of sites will continue to foster knowledge wherever it is found and will add significant value to users and communities both at AOL and elsewhere."
Before founding Yedda, Niessenbaum founded SmartTeam, which was sold to the French company Dassault in 1999. Niessenbaum worked there with Golan until 2005.
A spokesman for the company told ISRAEL21c that Yedda expects to see substantial growth in its Israeli office in the wake of this sale. "Any opportunity for Yedda to tap into a larger community of people is a source of growth for them," he said.
The acquisition follows last week's buy-out of Quigo, which develops customized content-based advertising technology and products for websites. Like Yedda, AOL, which is now undergoing restructuring, plans to maintain the company's R&D center in Israel.
The deal, which should be approved by the end of this year, was part of a recent online ad buying spree by AOL, which hopes to expand the capabilities of its new Platform A ad system, and bolster its online advertising capabilities to offset declines in subscription revenues and make it more competitive.
Quigo primarily serves contextually targeted cost-per-click text ads to over 500 publisher sites. Under the terms of the deal Quigo will become part of the company's Platform A unit, which includes other new ad technology outfits Third Screen Media, AdTech and Tacoda. Quigo will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of AOL.
Quigo has 100 employees. Most are based in New York, while R&D is based in Tel Aviv and San Jose. The company signed exclusive ad relationships with Forbes.com, and Time, this year.
In November 2006, AOL purchased Israeli start-up Relegance. This was the American giant's second purchase of an Israeli company after it bought Mirabilis (ICQ) for $407 million in 1998.
http://www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enDispWho=Articles%5El1849&enPage=BlankPage&enDisplay=view&enDispWhat=object&enVersion=0&enZone=Technology&
SAP, McAfee to boost Israeli development centers
Both companies will be hiring additional employees.
Shmulik Shelah 14 Nov 07 16:02
Two international software companies, SAP AG (NYSE; XETRA: SAP), and McAfee Inc. (NYSE: MFE), will expand their R&D centers in Israel and hire additional employees. SAP said it was looking to hire 30 people for its small business unit at its laboratory in Ra'anana, which develops small and medium-size business solutions, such as SAP Business One. The new intake will increase the small business R&D team to 250, out of a total of 850 people at the Ra'anana laboratory.
McAfee also announced it would be moving offices. The company's sales operations in Kfar Saba will move to new offices in Ramat Hehayal, which will also house McAfee's R&D center following the company's acquisition of Onigma last year. McAfee said it expected to hire several dozen new employees.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on November 14, 2007
Foreign investment continues flowing into Israel
The purchase of a communications equipment company raised October figures.
Zeev Klein 13 Nov 07 15:26
Total direct and portfolio investment by nonresidents amounted to $1.25 billion in October, greater than 10% of the total $9.3 billion investments made since the beginning of 2007.
Today, the Bank of Israel reported foreign exchange activity data, which showed that nonresidents' investments in Israel, continue to be strong, following a trend of large amounts of total direct and portfolio investments, which totaled $22.5 billion in 2006 and $8.6 billion in 2005.
Foreign direct investment in October totaled 1.87 billion, and has totaled 8.1 billion since January. The October figure was impacted significantly by the purchase by a nonresident of an Israeli company producing communication equipment. The direct investment from that deal totaled $1.2 billion. Half of this amount was already held by the nonresidents as a portfolio investment, so that alongside the direct investment of $ 1.2 billion, sales of about $ 600 million from the nonresident’s portfolio holding were also recorded.
Direct investment abroad by Israeli investors reached $110 million in October and has reached $5.1 billion since January.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 13, 2007
Shekel opens weaker
Both the shekel-dollar and shekel-euro rates have risen slightly in inter-bank trading this morning.
Globes correspondent 5 Nov 07 09:50
The weakness of the dollar on international money markets has not bypassed the local market, and for several days now the shekel-dollar exchange rate has sunk further and further below 4.0/$. The morning, the trend has reversed slightly, with the rate in inter-bank trading currently at 3.9735/$, 0.11% higher than the representative rate set on Friday.
Trading in shekel-dollar options yesterday indicated a 0.4% fall in the shekel-dollar rate. Last week, the rate fell 0.57%.
In the past two months, the interest rate gap between the dollar and the shekel has narrowed from 1.5% to 0.5%. The shekel-dollar rate has fallen 3.9% in that time, and 8.6% since the beginning of August.
The shekel-euro rate has risen 0.18% this morning, to 5.7573€.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on November 5, 2007
Solar power unto the nations
Luz, which developed technologies to harness solar energy, went bankrupt 16 years ago. Founder Arnold Goldman is back with Luz II. "Globes" talked to the man who went into cleantech before it became a buzzword.
Merav Ankori 28 Oct 07 10:23
He looks like a member of the Amish sect, with a white beard covering his entire face but no moustache. His face is radiant, and he frequently uses philosophical terminology. His name is Arnold J. Goldman, and he was one of the pioneers of cleantech in Israel, long before that concept assumed its current dimensions. The truth is that he himself did not realize back then that he was dealing in "cleantech."
Goldman (64) is the founder of Luz International, which since it was founded in 1984, has designed, developed, built, financed, and operated nine solar power plants in California's Mojave desert. It was a pioneer in proving that solar energy is a reliable way to produce electricity commercially, even at times of peak consumption. The building of the plants came against the backdrop of the oil crises, chiefly that of 1979, following the toppling of the Shah of Iran, as alternative energies looked like the way to freedom from the dependence on Arab oil. The fears of an oil shortage have not materialized for the time being, although most researchers now believe that the world's oil reserves are dwindling rapidly.
These nine plants are still operating, supplying 350 megawatts of power to Southern California. But Luz International, the company that deployed them on the plains of Nevada, was less fortunate. In 1991, despite being the sole commercial developer of thermal electricity in the US, it went bankrupt after failing to secure the necessary funding for the construction of its tenth power plant. The collapse of Luz International led in turn to the closure of Luz Israel, affecting the livelihood of hundreds of employees and their families.
Goldman has maintained a low profile since then. Far from the limelight, he set up a company whose name indicates its direction more than anything else: Luz II. With a name like that of a film sequel, Goldman has defined it as the next generation in solar energy. Luz II is a subsidiary of BrightSource Energy Inc.of Oakland California, which is owned by Goldman - a similar relationship to that between Luz International and Luz I. The other partners are venture capital fund VantagePoint Venture Partners, and private investors, some of whom also invested in the original Luz.
But it's not just the investors that go back a long way with Goldman. The moment he returned to business and set up the company, his former employees followed him. 15 of Luz's founding team, all of whom have been given a place of honor on the company's website, came from Luz I, most of them R&D engineers. Until the first significant financing round in 2006, they worked on a voluntary basis in addition to their own paid jobs, in the belief that the business would succeed and that then they would have a place and a reward for their efforts. "I believe that people have to show integrity and commitment in the way they act within the company," says Goldman in an exclusive interview with "Globes" explaining how he managed to retain his team, after his previous company went bankrupt.
In the first two years of its existence up to 2006, Luz II received $1 million in investment from a number of UK angels and Goldman himself. "The efforts focused principally on the development of a technological vision, and it was important to us to have investors that would go the distance with us so that we could realize it," explains Goldman. In October 2006, the company raised $16.5 million at a value of $49.5 million after money in a financing round led by US venture capital funds VantagePoint and Draper Fisher Jurveston (DFJ). JP Morgan and a large US energy company whose name Goldman will not disclose also invested in that round.
After this round, the company's volunteer staff became paid employees and most of them resumed the roles they filled in Luz I, among them Israel Kroizer, Luz Industries Israel CEO and Luz II president. Kroizer was the first engineer to join the original Luz back in 1980 and returned to a similar role in Luz II. Last May, the company raised more than $30 million, of which $10 million came from existing investors, and the rest from a leading investment bank that has remained in the shadows.
So what difference is there between Luz I and the next generation Luz II? Goldman claims that Luz II's technology is more advanced and that the other companies in the field use "old technology." Another difference is that Luz II plans to set up a solar energy field with a production capacity of 400 megawatts - more than the combined capacity of all of the nine plants it previously built.
"One of the crucial decisions we made while working on the concept for Luz II, was to take a different technological direction from the one we led in Luz I," explains Goldman. "We adopted a lot of ideas from it but we feel that we exhausted most of that technology's capabilities during Luz I's existence, and we now want to move on. The previous technology was based on a field of parabolic mirrors (designed to return light. M.A.) with a metal pipe running between them. The new technology has a field of mirrors aimed at a power tower in which the energy is produced. Each field has a number of towers depending on its size. We didn't invent the technology - neither here nor at Luz I - but we have managed to make optimal use of the idea while adding new dimensions to it."
Goldman explains that the new generation of the technology delivers greater efficiency so that "we're starting at a level 30% better than we achieved with the old technology and that's even before the future increase in efficiency which will make us even more attractive." According to his data, the team also achieved improvements at Luz I, bringing costs down by 50% from 1984 through 1991. "It was a tremendous achievement, but we were already close to exhausting the capacity for improved efficiency," he says. "This is also the company's ethos today - lower prices. In the next technology, we will be able to make an extremely competitive reduction in costs, in contrast with prices of conventional energy."
Goldman arrived in Israel with his wife and three children in 1977, "with the intention of staying here for two to three years." The goal was to bring to fruition a research project he started 16 years earlier, "and then I intended to return to the US," he says. The thesis he wrote back then dealt with the utilization of sunlight to produce energy and was based, in his words, on a philosophical outlook. "I observed the effect of the sun's power on the earth on a global scale," he explains, "and I wanted to use the sun's rays in order to produce energy for a range of needs. I completed my research here by 1979 and then I established the first Luz."
Globes: What is the origin of the name?
Goldman: "Because the research also included Jewish philosophy, I chose a name for the company that corresponded to the previous name for Bet El and which appeared in Jacob's dream as stated in the verse "And he called the name of the place Bet El but the name of that city was first called Luz." (Genesis 28:19). I identified with this connection."
Luz II is setting up its first pilot at the Rotem industrial park in Dimona, and it will begin operating in 2008. The pilot passed a notable milestone in its progress at the beginning of last month with the delivery of the first consignment out of a total of 1,640 mirrors that will be installed in it, and which will then generate 6 MW of thermal energy. A series of solar plants like these with 100MW and 200MW capacities will be built worldwide by 2010, and Luz II recently filed an official application (through its parent BrightSource) for approval to build a new solar energy power plant in the Mojave Desert, a move that will cost $10-20 million, which the company will finance from the proceeds of its recent financing round.
"We filed an application for a permit to set up a power plant with a 400 MW production capacity in California," says Goldman. "This entails not just a substantial financial investment in the power plant, but also in almost all aspects of its design, including related issues such as gas emission levels and the organization of the solar energy field." This is the first application to build a solar power plant in California since 1989. Other companies, it should be stressed, among them Israeli company Solel Solar Systems, have reported their involvement in major projects, but none of them has filed an official application, that is to say taken an actual step, as Luz has done. It should be noted that it takes about a year to obtain a permit for a plant and about two to three years to build it. This means that it will take between three and five years until the plant begins operating. "The current field should produce more than all the plants we built in seven years activity in Mojave," says Goldman.
The background to Luz II is more favorable today. The phrases "clean energy" or "alternative energy" do not merely represent a green trend among environmental activists, but a huge area of investment that attracts billions of dollars to a range of fields. 16 years ago, Luz did not have it that easy. Back then there were no incentives to infrastructure companies to use solar energy power plants nor any environmental awareness of the advantages this energy could offer.
Goldman established Luz during a period which was also critical in international politics. The Yom Kippur War was a turning point. "Until then," explains Kroizer, CEO of Luz Industries Israel, "the Western world treated the Arab states as primitive countries which had no understanding whatsoever of the value of their own resources. From the moment the Arab world imposed the oil embargo in the wake of the Yom Kippur War, it was clear that the story had changed. Until the war, the price of oil was around $2 a barrel, and following it the price jumped to $10 a barrel, and then they started talking alternative energy out of purely political considerations; they wanted to end the dependence on Arab countries as oil suppliers."
In 1970-1980, the US Congress spearheaded an extensive legislative change, and set out a policy called the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA). "This policy supported the transition to alternative energy, not strictly in the sense of clean energy," Kroizer says. "The issue was efficiency," Goldman points out.
To switch to alternative energy, energy companies were supposed to spend some of their of their budgets on the building of solar energy power plants, something which they were naturally reluctant to do. Goldman offered to provide the finance for the building of the power plants, and in return the energy companies would undertake to purchase electricity from him for 30 years. The moment they were relieved of the financing burden, the willingness to cooperate was much greater. "We were the pioneers of this form of work model in the US," says Goldman, "and we were preceded in this solely by the aircraft industry." Luz I's intention was to become established in California and then move on to other regions in the US. But falling oil prices harmed federal motivation to support alternative energy projects. Luz I could no longer meet the conditions of the market and had to declare bankruptcy in 1991.
During the 13 years from the time Luz I closed to the establishment of Luz II in 2004, Goldman led various ventures in the Internet, medicine and other fields. Once an entrepreneur always an entrepreneur - he was one of the founders of Electric Fuel, which later became Arotech Corporation’s (Nasdaq: ARTX; TASE:ARTX), which currently has a market cap of $45 million.
He had other career changes too. Before entering the solar energy field, he co-founded and served as VP engineering at Lexitron, the company which developed the world's first word processor and which was acquired by Raytheon Inc. (NYSE: RTN) in 1977. These were not software programs but micro-computers, and Lexitron was the first company to use a video screen in word processing, as early as the end of the 1970s. After his temporary foray into medicine and the Internet, Goldman returned to his great entrepreneurial love, clean energy.
What is your vision for the company?
"That it will be a leading and large player in solar energy worldwide. In the past we were a big fish in a small pond, because we controlled 90% of the global solar energy market, but it was a very small market. Today we want to be a big fish in what is now becoming a large sea and will become even bigger. We want to be modest and not make noise, but we very much believe in what we're doing, and we're deeply committed to our vision. We're practical people, not speculators," Goldman stresses.
Luz II - a technological overview
"The concentration of the sun's rays is relatively low, otherwise we'd all be roasted," explains Kroizer. "So in order to reach high temperatures, we have to concentrate the rays. To produce electricity efficiently, you need high temperatures. The more concentrated the rays are, the greater the efficiency in electricity production." Kroizer adds that there several methods for concentrating electricity, and the question is what method should be used to concentrate the sun's rays.
Luz I's method was to concentrate the rays using parabolic mirrors arranged in a trough form with a glass coated metal tube running between them. A fluid, normally thermal oil, passes through the tube and is heated to a temperature approaching 400 degrees centrigade. The oil creates steam which is used to produce electricity.
Luz II aims to reach higher concentrations of sunrays, so its design calls for the mirrors in the field to be trained on a tower, generating a concentration ten times that of the parabolic trough. The higher temperatures make the electricity production more efficient. The steam is produced in the production tower. "We've now managed to produce at a temperature of 550 degrees and we plan to reach 700 degrees in the future," says Kroizer.
According to him, the company is not attempting to invent new components but instead create compatibility between as many systems as possible in one application. "Only conventional suppliers will work with us on the new technology, and they will make the adjustments to the equipment, based on the technical specifications we give them. This is where we can contribute our expertise in cost efficiency."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on October 22, 2007
eBay opens Israel development center
The new center will develop eBay’s sorting and cataloguing technologies.
Batya Feldman 8 Oct 07 13:54
eBay Inc. (Nasdaq:EBAY) is expanding its activity in Israel by deepening its joint activity with Shopping.com and opening a development center. Shopping.com CEO Joshua Silverman says that the new center will develop eBay’s sorting and cataloguing technologies. He is visiting Israel for the annual meeting of Shopping.com’s websites worldwide.
Shopping.com was the world’s first price comparison website. It began as the Israeli start-up Dealtime. After barely surviving the Internet crisis, the company took off in 2004, changed its name, and went public on Nasdaq. eBay acquired the company for $634 million in 2005.
Shopping.com Israel is responsible for developing and strengthening the product catalogue that underpins the company’s operations worldwide. Shopping.com Israel is responsible for the products catalogues for the company’s websites in the US, UK, France, Germany, and Australia. The company currently has 214 million users worldwide.
Shopping.com is part of eBay’s Market Places division, which includes Rent.com and US sports tickets site StubHub.com. The division posted $1.29 billion revenue for the second quarter, 26% more than for the corresponding quarter of 2006.
Silverman says that time was needed to realize the synergy between Shopping.com and eBay. “We’ve now chosen the areas that can be leveraged, and we’re thinking about the integration. I’m proud that we’re doing things this way. We defined the core businesses where Shopping.com can contribute to eBay. Shopping.com is still the leading price comparison website, and we’re the world’s leading e-commerce site. We believe that we can increase the number of customers who find suitable products through better sorting and cataloguing. Excellence in sorting and cataloguing is an important part of our work and Israel will be the technology center in this field.”
Silverman says that eBay does not disclose the performance of its different units, but that Shopping.com does its work well. “It is part of the Market Places division. We maintain the profits of the strategic and entrepreneurial unit. That’s important to us. eBay has already said several times that Shopping.com is doing good work, and we’re very pleased by the acquisition.”
Silverman adds that the Israeli development center is hiring. He says that he is seeking two kinds of employees: engineers who love solving problems that other people believe are unsolvable, and global researchers who specialize in cataloguing. “We’re seeking e-commerce content experts, people who know how people behave. People who want to catalogue the world. It’s important for us not to outsource; we’re not sending problems to Israel to be solved. There’s a business problem that has to be fixed.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on October 8, 2007
Analyst doubts benefit of FTSE upgrade for Israel
Reuters quotes Daniel Rappaport of Leader Capital Markets as saying Teva will be only stock to gain.
Erez Wollberg 2 Oct 07 22:45
A report from "Reuters" casts doubt on whether the recently announced upgrade of Israel to "developed" status by FTSE will be to the benefit of the Tel Aviv market. The report says it may be better for Israel to be regarded as an emerging market, and that that way it will probably be able to attract more foreign capital.
The upgrade was announced on September 20. It will come into effect in June 2008. Merrill Lynch has estimated that the upgrade will lead to an inflow of some $3 billion into the Israeli stock market. However, Reuters quotes Daniel Rappaport of Leader Capital Markets as saying, "Most of the passive money investments are made according to the Morgan Stanley Capital International index. This is why not much will happen."
Rappaport mentions the example of Greece, which was promoted to developed market status by MSCI in 2001. "We saw a rally that was driven by hedge funds and the anticipation of strong inflows. Once the buying was finished, the market lost focus and a year and a half later, flows were weaker, volumes were weaker and the market drifted off and didn't go anywhere," Rappaport told Reuters.
Rappaport sees dual-listed pharmaceuticals company Teva as the only company likely to benefit from the change at FTSE. According to him, Teva is 40% of an Israeli portfolio in the MSCI index and should rise to 60% in any developed portfolio. "The Israeli market would then become a Teva trade. The price would be determined by Nasdaq (activity) and that would damage Israel's market," Reuters quotes Rappaport as saying.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on October 2, 2007
Morgan Stanley sees economy growing despite US slowdown
The investment bank sees further interest rate hikes as inflation risks are on the upside.
Globes correspondent 2 Oct 07 09:51
Morgan Stanley has published an updated macroeconomic review of Israel in which it adds much greater weight to the housing crisis in the US, although it believes Israel's economy is robust enough to weather the storm.
"The future of the US economy will influence the future of the Israeli economy," notes Morgan Stanley analyst Serhan Cevik. "Some say this is the worst crisis since the Great Depression, and that the US economy now faces a downward spiral as credit troubles lead to a deeper correction in the housing market. That is not what our US economics team thinks, albeit it does expect slower real GDP growth of 2% over the next year and a half."
Outlining how Israel will be affected by this, Cevik continues, "The question is whether monetary easing is enough to deal with the credit crisis and what appears to be the unraveling of a speculative property boom, and thereby prevent the US economy from sliding into an outright recession. Only time will tell, but the dollar’s weakness is an obvious consequence in the meantime. And that matters a lot to the Israeli economy, with exports to the US accounting for 40% of the total.
"We expect Israel to absorb the shock of slower growth in the US and keep growing at a robust pace - 5.4% in 2007 and 4.6% next year - along with the rest of the world," continues Cevik. "Even if the global economy slows more than what we envisage, the downside risks to the Israeli economy should be manageable, in our view, thanks to the strength of domestic demand. demand-led growth to gain more traction. On our estimates, the “neutral” level of interest rates in Israel is around 4.75-5% and thus the central bank still provides stimuli by keeping short-term interest rates well below that threshold."
As for inflation in Israel itself, Cevik says, "Inflation excluding the currency pass-through effect is running above the central bank’s target. The consumer price index posted a 2.8% increase in the first eight months of this year, pushing the year-on-year inflation rate from -1.3% in May to 1% in August. On our estimates, the annual inflation rate will keep rising to 1.7% in September and 2.8% by the end of this year, even assuming a stronger exchange rate. In other words, inflation pressures arising from strong growth in domestic demand will have a more prominent role in future."
While he believes that domestic demand is capable of acting as a counterweight to inflationary pressures, Cevik believes that a tight monetary discipline will have to be maintained to avoid losing sight of Israel's inflation target. "Monetary tightening in Israel is not over yet, in our opinion. The global slowdown may have some disinflationary effects, but higher energy and food prices will keep pushing inflation higher in Israel. The latest figures show that the Israeli economy is growing at an elevated rate with no sign of immediate slowdown. That is why we believe that inflation risks are on the upside and monetary tightening is not over yet," he concludes.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on October 2, 2007
Foreign finance in Israel - stronger than you think
Foreign institutions dominate parts of Israel's financial services market, and a survey by Globes Research and Kesselman and Kesselman reveals that their potential is still a long way from being fully realized.
Avi Temkin 1 Oct 07 16:38
Dozens of foreign financial institutions now operate in Israel, offering a wide range of services, from regular banking, to investment banking, asset portfolio management for individuals and institutions, underwriting, as well as foreign currency trading, shekel futures, broking services, securities depository services, and market making in government bonds. Their activity in all these fields is neither marginal or unsubstantial; quite the contrary, foreign financial institutions have a significant market share in each of them, and even dominate some of them, especially investment banking.
A new joint survey by Globes Research and Kesselman and Kesselman -PricewaterhouseCoopers on activity by foreign firms in Israel's financial markets, maps out the foreign financial institutions' penetration of the Israeli economy, and provides an updated picture by assessing the foreign players' overall activity in one study. Only by putting their activities side by side and seeing the links between them, can the considerable weight and influence of foreign firms in local economic life be assessed.
The findings reveal that foreign institutions have a very strong and impressive presence in Israel, and that their presence in the local capital and money market is underestimated. The survey also found that the foreigners' penetration of the Israeli market is still a long way from exhausting itself, and that their presence in corporate banking, asset management, and financial services will increase over the coming years.
The foreign presence has yielded many advantages for the economy so far, headed by access to the global market in a far higher measure than the Israeli economy's weight in the global economy. It would be difficult to imagine the high-tech revolution in Israel without the presence of foreign banks in the Israeli economy. These have provided a broad range of services, such as consulting, underwriting, or advising on offerings, mergers, acquisitions, or the sale of Israeli companies to overseas corporations. On the other hand, it would be difficult to imagine the expansion of the foreigners' presence without the growth in the local high-tech sector. Another field in which foreign banking has made a sizable contribution is asset management, and the provision of tools that help the Israeli business sector gauge the risks that ventures could hold.
The survey, which is based on interviews with key executives at the foreign institutions operating in Israel, and at Israeli companies, reveals a number of conditions that explain the entry by foreign institutions into the local markets. Foreign activity in a given market depends on four conditions. First, there must be room to act, or in other words, Israeli banking institutions should not have a dominant presence in this market. Second, legislation must be in place that corresponds to the legislative infrastructure for markets that the foreign banks are familiar with. Third, an operating infrastructure - clearing and trading arrangements - must be built along the lines of those that foreign institutions work with overseas. Lastly, the foreigners must have a clear advantage over local competitors.
In examining each of these conditions, the survey unveils a dynamic view of the foreigners' penetration of Israel's financial markets. Banks and financial institutions from overseas frequently encountered the activity by companies and entrepreneurs from Israel in other countries, and it was contacts like these that brought them to Israel. These contacts became even stronger over time, and today large Israeli corporations have standing associations with certain institutions which have advised them on various deals over long periods.
At present, four of the foreign banks operating in Israel hold full-banking service licenses - Citigroup, BNP Paribas, HSBC, and the State Bank of India. Each one operates in different fields, according to the advantages they have in them, and each of them gives Israeli activity easy access to a different geographical region. In addition, dozens of other institutions operate through local representatives, and two of them - UBS and Deutsche Bank - are members of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE).
Investment banking was the first field to see foreign activity in Israel - an earlier incarnation of Lehman Brothers operated in Israel back in the 1960s - and foreigners now dominate it. This refers not only to offerings on overseas bourses, but also local activity by Israeli corporations, whether it is offerings or mergers and acquisitions. The global banks' expertise in specific fields enabled them to serve as tool that facilitated the execution of major deals. It is doubtful whether the restructuring of Israel's telecommunications sector in recent years could have gone ahead without the foreign banks' constant support and advice.
Keeping clear of retail banking
According to the survey, investment banking is one of the key fields that will see further expansion of the foreign financial presence. Still, foreign banks are highly unlikely to begin offering services to Israeli households in the near future, due to the tremendous advantage that local banks still have in retail banking, chiefly the large branch networks already in place, but also the range and quality of services available to people in almost every community throughout Israel. The survey concludes that, in this respect, it would be unwise to pin any hopes on greater competition in the retail sector through the penetration by foreign banks of this market.
However, this conclusion should not be taken as an indication that the retail sector will not see any competition at all. One of the interesting questions, to which there is as yet no clear answer, is how keen will the foreign banks be to begin offering financial advisory services, at least to households with means? If they do so, it could bring about a substantial change in the advisory and financial instruments distribution sector within a short space of time.
From the viewpoint of the foreign institutions, the changes now taking place in the Israeli economy have created quite a few business opportunities. These are to be found in the Israeli economy's rapid growth, the opening up of its markets to foreign competition, Israel's integration in the globalization process, and the major reforms that have been implemented in the capital markets over recent years.
If, in the past, foreign institutions were accustomed to focusing their efforts on investment banking, the immediate future will probably see a marked expansion of their activity into asset management. The acquisition by US fund Plainfield Asset Management LLC of the Gadish provident fund and its management company Gadish Global Financial Services (2007) Ltd., and the merger of the latter with Psagot Ofek Investment House Ltd., marks the start of the foreigners' entry into the asset management market.
Foreign bankers, it should be noted, already constitute an important part of the asset management market, especially through their contacts with Israeli institutional investors. Insurance companies and pension funds invest part of their resources overseas, or purchase financial products from the foreign banks' representatives in Israel. Moreover, foreign institutions are the ones that provide local banks with all the structured instruments that they offer the Israeli public, once they have been divided into smaller units. It should also be remembered that foreign banks have been offering private banking services to a select group of wealthy people in Israel for many years. These services have expanded in recent years, in line with the increase in the number of highly affluent figures in the Israeli economy.
Government policy and actions will play a pivotal role in all these processes. The structural change and increasing competition taking place in markets in Israel would have been inconceivable without the presence of the foreigners. The potential entry into the Israeli economy by foreign financial institutions was one of the factors that motivated governments in Israel to introduce structural reforms. Further structural reforms of a micro-economic nature were also needed once the foreigners started operating in Israel, in order to bring the economy into line with the accepted standard in other industrialized economies. The result of all these changes, when we look them in their totality, is a total grassroots change in the capital and money market in Israel, ensuring it conforms with the existing game rules overseas. The foreign institutions were, as mentioned earlier, one of the main catalysts in this process.
In Israel, people often tend to overlook the critical weight that government policy has on the willingness to bring regulatory and legal frameworks into line with those overseas. The survey includes an analysis of a series of microeconomic changes, whose purpose, in many cases, was to adapt the modus operandi of local financial markets to the benchmark in other countries. Some of these changes were a direct outcome of needs created following the introduction of earlier reforms, thereby creating the dynamics for structural change. The reform created a need for complementary reform, one structural change laid the foundations for the next structural change, and different procedures introduced simultaneously have fueled one another, intensifying the effect of each one in turn.
Alongside the benefit to the economy, the foreigners' entry has also created problems that policy makers must tackle. The most daunting of all these is the proliferation of market segmentation, as part of the population has been blocked from gaining access to the services that foreign institutions offer. Not every Israeli company can benefit from the underwriting services offered by foreign banks, and not every individual can make use of their asset management services.
The foreigners' entry into Israel has been typified by cherry picking, although to tell the truth, they do not bear sole responsibility for this, since there were also quite a few legal barriers that prevented people from gaining access to the various services the foreigners have to offer. This does not make the existence of separate segments for large or small companies, or different asset segments for the wealthy and for those with middle incomes or lower, any less problematic.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on October 1, 2007
FTSE grants Israel “developed” status
Citigroup Israel's Neil Corney: More international investors will be able to invest in Israel.
Noa Pereg 20 Sep 07 11:11
FTSE Group has granted Israel “developed'' status, which will enable the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) to attract more from the estimated $2-2.5 trillion in funds that track the FTSE indices.
“Bloomberg” quotes Citigroup Israel head of trading Neil Corney as saying, “This is a positive. It's going to mean that more international investors will be able to invest in Israel.''
“Bloomberg” adds that shares including Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) may be affected as investors who benchmark against the indexes buy or sell to reflect today's announced changes, which take effect from June 2008. Most funds are restricted to investing in developed markets because of their perceived lower risk.
FTSE Group said that the FTSE Policy Group found that “Israel meets all quality of markets criteria for a developed market and has done so since being included on the Watch List in 2006. A new FTSE Index for developed markets in Europe, Middle East and Africa will be introduced for those investors wishing to integrate Israel within their existing Developed Europe portfolios.
“Bloomberg” says, “Israel took steps in the past two years to raise its profile among foreign investors and increase the perception that its $140 billion economy was ready for upgrade to developed status.”
“Bloomberg” quotes ING Investment manager Roberto Lampl as saying that the FTSE changes “may be foreshadowing what MSCI could do but they each have their own methodology. If the MSCI would decide to remove certain countries we would take action.”
“Bloomberg” says, “The Tel Aviv index has almost tripled in the last four years, as the economy marks its fifth year of growth. New foreign investment in exchange-listed securities in the first half of this year reached $967 million, compared with $2.1 billion for all of 2006, according to the Bank of Israel.
“FTSE's requirements also include a wealth test, which Israel met as gross national income per capita rose to $18,620 in 2005. The World Bank classifies any country with ``high'' income to have Gross National Income of at least $11,116.”
In July 2005, the Knesset passed the Bachar capital market reforms, one of which requires institutional investors to increase competitiveness in the financial services that they offer. In May 2007, TASE raised the threshold of public holdings in blue-chip stocks to 25% from 22.5% in order to increase trading volumes in shares and their liquidity levels.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on September 20, 2007
Oracle plans Israeli investments
Oracle president Safra Catz made the comment at an investment conference in California, attended by Finance Ministry director general Yarom Ariav.
Ran Dagoni, Washington 18 Sep 07 15:22
Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) intends to make further investments in Israel, said company president Safra Catz yesterday at a reception for investors, venture capitalists, and high-tech executives in Palo Alto, California. The event was also attended by Ministry of Finance director general Yarom Ariav.
Addressing the group, Catz said that Israel must be an active player in the global market, and export everything it produces, "even Prigat fruit juice."
Ariav told "Globes" that he saw himself as "a soldier of the State of Israel in Silicon Valley, the high-tech mecca, whose goal is to promote foreign investment in Israel and collaboration between Israeli and US companies." He added that the US technology community was aware of what was happening in Israel and the technological advantages it can offer, but that these investors still needed exposure to realities in Israel, and the constant stream of investment opportunities. Ariav said he heard from venture capitalists and other participants at the conference of the increasing interest that Silicon Valley is now taking in alternative energies, with more and more financial and human resources now being earmarked for it. According to him, the professionals he met at the conference expect Israel to take the lead in R&D into alternative energy.
Ariav will be meeting key figures in Hollywood tomorrow, including a producer from Warner Studios, and will offer them incentives to produce films in Israel, under the terms of proposals now being drawn up by a inter-ministerial committee in Jerusalem. Ariav will be asking producers how Israel can compete more effectively with other countries that have been hosting film productions for years. "We would like to join this club," he said.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on September 18, 2007
Alan Greenspan impressed with Israel’s economy
Israel’s economic growth proves that "economies can thrive even in times of violent adversity".
Ran Dagoni, Washington 18 Sep 07 15:07
Former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan writes in his new book “The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World” that Israel’s economic growth proves that economies can thrive even in times of violent adversity. He also praises Lebanon and even Iraq.
Greenspan writes that he draws encouragement from the ability of market economies to hold on in the face of violence and the threat of violence. World Bank data indicate that Israel has succeeded in creating per capita income at a level that is almost the level of the US, and the same as in Greece and Portugal. Greenspan notes that despite the war between Hizbullah and the IDF, Lebanon’s GDP fell by only 4% in 2006 and that even Iraq has been able to maintain something resembling economic activity in the midst of all the upheavals undergone in recent years.
http://globes-online.com/serveen/globes/DocView.asp?did=1000255269
Treasury officials to meet California investors
Oracle president Safra Katz will be a keynote speaker at a reception tomorrow.
Ran Dagoni, Washington 16 Sep 07 14:50
Ministry of Finance director general Yarom Ariav, the ministry’s representative in New York, Zvi Halamish, and other officials are in San Francisco for a series of meetings with top West Coast financial and high-tech executives. Halamish told “Globes”, “We intend to make a presentation to potential investors who are not a part of the New York investment establishment, with a focus on decision-makers in venture capital funds, showing that it is worthwhile investing in Israel - even though Israeli technology is not unknown in Silicon Valley, of course.”
Tomorrow, the delegation will hold a major reception. Invitees include officials California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) and other large institutional investors. Oracle president Safra Katz will be a keynote speaker alongside Ariav.
Ariav and California State Controller John Chiang will speak at a conference in San Diego on Tuesday, and Shamrock Holdings president and CEO Stanley Gold will speak at a conference in Beverly Hills on Wednesday.
Israel is California’s 20th largest export market. The state had $1.5 billion in exports to Israel in 2006, double the amount in 2003.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on September 16, 2007
What is up with DFNS, many niche gurus at few sites, love and buy but selling imperative contines to balance out all these flurries. Is their toxic regisration to sell many many?
Economy grew at 6.6% pace in first half of 2007
GDP growth is above the 5% predictions of both the Finance Ministry and the Bank of Israel.
Zeev Klein 22 Aug 07 14:18
Israel’s GDP rose by an annualized 6.6% in the first half of the year, after rising by 3.4% in the second half of 2006 and 6% in the first half, the Central Bureau of Statistics reports. The growth is above the 5% predictions of both the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Israel.
The present growth rate is higher than in 2003-06, and the highest since the 8.7% growth rate in 2000. The economy has now recorded five years of continuous growth, the longest period in Israel’s history. GDP has grown 21% since 2003, an increase of NIS 135 billion. GDP is now at an all-time high of NIS 660 billion, and GDP per capita is NIS 92,338, or $21,500.
The rapid growth in the first half was driven by an 8.3% annualized growth in exports, 5.9% annualized growth in investment, and an annualized growth of 7.5% in private consumption. Business product rose by an annualized 7.9%, above expectations.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on August 22, 2007
General Motors set to open R&D center in Israel
The government will probably provide grants for the center, which will employ hundreds of engineers and researchers.
Dubi Ben-Gedalyahu, Gali Weinreb, and Shay Niv 13 Aug 07 16:25
Sources inform “Globes” that General Motors Corporation (NYSE:GM) is in advanced negotiations to establish an R&D center in Israel with an initial investment of tens of millions of dollars. The center is expected to employ hundreds of engineers and researchers in various fields related to GM’s activities worldwide, including the development of alternative driving systems, vehicle electronics and communications systems, robotics, advanced materials, imaging systems, and safety.
The R&D center will probably be set up in Ra’anana and will have branches in outlying areas and development towns.
GM has been discussing the subject with the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor’s Industrial Cooperation Authority. The government will probably provide grants for the R&D center, although their size, incentives, and features are not yet known. The company is currently negotiating the center’s location with the Office of the Chief Scientist and Ministry of Finance Budget Department. A GM delegation recently visited Israel to reach agreements on these issues.
GM has invested in the development of automotive technologies in Israel since the mid-1990s, through GM-UMI Technology (GM-UMIT), a joint venture with GM importer Universal Motors Israel Ltd. (UMI).
Through GM-UMIT, GM has invested in and supported a number of technology incubators over the past decade, and reviews dozens of research proposals every year in order to decide which have promising applications for the vehicle industry. GM-UMIT funds basic and industrial research, proof of concept, and projects in various development stages.
GM makes the largest amount of reciprocal procurements in Israel among vehicle manufacturers. The company made $102 million in reciprocal procurements in 2005, 32% more than in 2004. 16 Israeli companies currently supply GM with goods and services. Three of these companies had more than $2.5 million in sales to GM and twelve had more than $1 million each.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on August 13, 2007
Teva leads march on Capitol Hill
Teva has spent $5.5 million on lobbying in the US Congress in seven years. "Globes" reveals which other Israeli companies have been spending money on lobbying and how much.
Gitit Pincas 9 Aug 07 16:20
How can Israeli companies, which have not contributed to the election campaign of one party or another, and which do not have contacts among American politicians, extend their reach to the US, and influence decision making in the world's largest democracy? The answer should come as no surprise: they hire lobbyists to serve as their long arm, and promote their interests in the US Congress, the Senate, the White House, on special committees, and with any regulatory body where influence is required. One company that has spent a considerable sum on promoting its interests is pharmaceutical giant Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA), the world's largest generic drugs company.
A report published by the United States Senate Office of Public Records, which details the annual expenditure on lobbying throughout the years (since the enactment of the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995) reveals that, during the first half of 2007, Teva paid Washington-based lobbying firm Timmons & Company $200,000. The report, which was published at the beginning of the month, said that Teva had engaged the company to promote, among other things, an amendment to the Public Health Service Act. The amendment is likely to pave the way for regulatory approval of biogeneric drugs - a field to which Teva has devoted considerable efforts. It is also seeking amendments to laws relating to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as well changes to regulations governing health insurance cover for the use of generic drugs.
$200,000 is the amount spent since the beginning of the year, but the sum over recent years is a lot higher. An examination by "Globes" of Senate records reveals that, since 2002, the first recorded entry, Teva has spent a total of $5.5 million. This is a small sum for a company with more than $3 billion in cash, but a sizeable amount to invest in lobbying, and Teva is probably the Israeli company that spends the most on this kind of activity. Teva declined to confirm the figure.
Teva generally promotes generics and legislation that governs it. On the other side of the fence are the big pharmaceutical companies that sell mainly ethical drugs, and they invest more. A lot more. Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE), for example, spent almost $12 million on lobbying in 2006 - including on issues not related to the blocking of generics - while Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK) invested a few million dollars last year - $4 million to be precise.
Teva - supporting the professionalizing of the US judiciary
Teva has worked, and is still working with a number of lobbying firms, including Wilkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, The Washington Group, MFJ International LLC, which is also working together with the Generic Pharmaceutical Association, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Artemis Strategies, and others. Every year, the issues on the agenda are slightly different. One of the ideas that Teva wished to promote in 2006 was a pilot scheme introduced in certain district courts in the US, aimed at promoting judicial expertise on patents. It also sought to promote patent reforms that year.
Interestingly, the person whose signature appears on some of the documents filed by Teva with the Senate is Debra Barrett, Teva USA's VP of government affairs. Amazingly, her surname is similar to that of George Barrett, president and CEO of Teva North America, and Teva Group VP, and her first name is the same as Barrett's wife. Teva said that Barrett's wife was indeed called Debra, but that it was not the same person.
Moreover, some of the earlier documents that Teva filed up to 2005 bore the signature of someone called Judith Marth, who also served as Teva USA VP of government affairs. In this case the similarity in name to current Teva USA president and CEO William S. Marth is no coincidence. Judith Marth (nee Milford) is indeed William Marth's wife. The two met at Teva, but Judith has since left.
In any event, Teva may have a high profile, and a reputation for investing effort in changing public opinion on Capitol Hill, but it is no by no means the only one to do so, although as mentioned earlier, the sums it spends on this are a lot higher than those spent by other companies. Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKP), for example, paid the Normandy Group $20,000 to "raise general issues relating to business restrictions, and other commercial issues in the White House and Senate." One can only assume that this actually referred to Check Point's attempts to acquire Sourcefire, an acquisition that fell through after it was blocked by the US administration.
Other examples of lobbying expenditure (some of which were calculated by the website Open Secrets, a site run by the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics) are: Tefen Yazamot Ltd., controlled by Stef Wertheimer, which paid a total of $550,000 to lobbying firms Livingston Group LLC and Piper Rudnick LLP (which later became DLA Piper) to promote key economic issues; Merhav Group, which has spent $980,000 since 1998 (with an interval between 2000-2002); and Zoran Corp. (Nasdaq: ZRAN), which spent $280,000 on lobbying the Senate on digital television in 2005-2006. In addition, the Technion Israel Institute of Technology spends around $40,000 a year on lobbying, while Nilit Ltd has spent tens of thousands of dollars a year in lobbying since 1999, reaching $120,000.
The defense industries are fairly active too, and most of them are clients of Zvi Rafiah. Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) has spent tens of thousands of dollars a year since 1998 (reaching a record $310,000 in 2006). ImageSat International NV, which planned to float on Nasdaq, spent $120,000 in 2004-2005 on marketing satellite services to US government companies. Tadiran Electronic Systems Ltd. spent $60,000 in 2006 on the securing of finance for its products. Elbit Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: ESLT; TASE: ESLT) subsidiary Elisra Group is another lobbying client from the defense industry, while Rafael Armament Development Authority Ltd. spent almost $150,000 a year until 2002, and $520,000 in 2005-2006.
Israeli banks, such as Bank Hapoalim (LSE: BKHD; TASE: POLI), Israel Discount Bank (TASE: DSCT), Israel Discount Bank of New York, Union Bank of Israel (TASE: UNON), and Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI), have also set aside funds for lobbying in the US on, among other things, taxation and regulation. Private Israeli citizens also number among the clients of lobbyists on Capitol Hill. In 2000, for example, businessman Baruch Ivcher spent $20,000 on the promotion of press freedom in Peru. Ivcher, a multimillionaire whose business interests in Israel include the ownership of a number of media organizations, is currently one of the franchisees of the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in Israel.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on August 9, 2007
http://www.globes.co.il/serveEN/globes/docView.asp?did=1000241902&fid=1724
ELTK is a complete enigma. Perhaps some real positive
news ahead ? With this company, who knows.
Dubi
ELTK up nearly 20% last 2 days on no news in terrible market?
Merrill Lynch: Israel should be flavor of the month
Analyst Haim Israel concludes that Israel remains a defensive market in the face of the current emerging market volatility.
Globes correspondent 2 Aug 07 14:50
Israel should be "flavor of the month" amid the current global volatility in equities. This is the conclusion of a report released today by Merrill Lynch.
" With a reputation as being defensive to GEM (global emerging markets) and the ultimate diversifier, Israel should be the flavor of the month now that volatility is increasing in GEM. Does that still hold water?," Merrill Lynch analyst Haim Israel asks.
"According to our strategic team, headed by Michael Hartnett, the recent sell-off in EM is the culmination of three main issues: (i) excess positioning (ii) excess returns and (iii) excess risk exposure," Israel notes, and assesses the relevance of these three metrics on the MSCI Israel.
On the first factor, Israel writes, "No fear of a crowd of fleeing foreign investors here, as Israel remains one of the most heavily underweighted markets in GEM. MSCI Israel positioning in GEM portfolios is as low as ~ 32% of the benchmark (emergingportfolio.com) and according to Merrill Lynch latest FM survey, 40% of GEM investors are underweight Israel."
On the question of excess returns, Israel says, "Not flattering, but in the last couple of years’ bull market MSCI Israel justified our Neutral weighting by significantly underperforming GEM (14% in the last 12 months, 22% in the last 24 months, 71% since the recent bull-run started in 2003)."
And on risk, the Merrill Lynch analyst writes, "Israel is no longer as defensive in nature as it used to be. However this is entirely due to the increased correlation/ Beta of Teva with GEM since the beginning of 2006. Paradoxically, excluding Teva, MSCI Israel’s Beta to GEM drops markedly and remains an efficient GEM diversifier to GE portfolios.
"Did we mention flavor of the month'?", Israel's report concludes.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on August 2, 2007
EFI to open inkjet R&D design center in Hod Hasharon.
Strong printer sales led EFI to record revenue in the second quarter.
Adi Ben Israel 31 Jul 07 10:13
Digital print solutions developer Electronics for Imaging Inc. (Nasdaq: EFII) announced that in August it would open its new inkjet R&D design center in Hod Hasharon, in light of its EFI's significant growth this year. The company said it was opening the new center because of the high quality of inkjet engineering skills in Israel, and that it would provide the company with an easily accessible research and development environment to better meet the diverse needs of its customer base.
"We are pleased to open our new R & D facility and are currently assembling the finest team of professionals serving the graphic arts industry. With this capable team of engineers and project managers under one roof, we enhance our ability to break through existing barriers in the development of inkjet technology," explained Ghilad Dziesietnik, Chief Technology Officer of EFI.
Eli Shalev has joined EFI as general manager and will be responsible for managing the new center.
EFI also published its financial report for the second quarter of 2007, which reveals that the company beat analysts' forecasts with record revenue. The company has also upped its guidance for 2007 as a whole.
EFI reported record revenue of $162.5 million in the second quarter, up approximately 18.3% from $137.3 million in the corresponding quarter of 2006. Non-GAAP net profit was $21.7 million or $0.33 per share in the second quarter, compared with $18.2 million, or $0.28 per share in the corresponding quarter last year.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on July 31, 2007
Oracle's Larry Ellison to visit in August
Ellison will meet with senior high-tech executives at an Oracle conference.
Gali Weinreb 30 Jul 07 15:49
Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) founder and CEO Larry Ellison will make his first visit to Israel next month. During his visit, Ellison will meet President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and other senior government officials.
Ellison will arrive in Israel on August 8, and participate in an Oracle conference, at which "Globes" will be providing advertising and media services. The event will be attended by 2,000 senior executives from Israel's high-tech sector. There will also be a reception in his honor at the US Embassy.
Ellison founded Oracle 30 years ago, and turned it into one of the world leaders in database applications and management. Now the world's largest provider of enterprise information management software with $18 billion in revenue in 2007, Oracle operates in 145 countries, including Israel. Its local affiliate, Oracle Israel was founded in 1996, and markets, sells, and provides support and implementation services for Oracle systems.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on July 30, 2007
Janus reaches Israel
Janus International executive Alex Ricchebuono: The perception that Israel is a small market is mistaken.
Roee Bergman 24 Jul 07 17:59
Israel’s flourishing capital market is attracting many foreign players. Some enter the retail market, others the institutional market. Some market within the legal restrictions, and some do not call it marketing, but still do it very well. A few weeks ago, Janus Capital Group Inc. (NYSE:JNS) began marketing its products and services in Israel in collaboration with AL Priority Investments Ltd.
Janus International (UK) regional sales director for Southern Europe Alex Ricchebuono says, “The perception that Israel is a small market is mistaken. If you add up the deals that Israelis control in the global market, it’s much greater that what you see here. The Israeli market isn’t large compared with other markets, but it has the potential for driving deals abroad.”
“Globes”: What is Israel’s potential for you?
Ricchebuono: “Besides certain countries in the EU, Israel is considered one of the countries most connected with the US. The ties between Israel and the US make Israel one of the best markets for us to distribute our products. To define the Israeli market as an emerging and undeveloped market is a mistake. The opposite is true. Israeli banks have ties with all the world’s large institutions, there is a developed industry of hedge funds, structured products, and other sophisticated products, and we want to play in this game. There’s a tendency to underrate Israel’s value in the world.”
Ricchebuono laughingly says, “You should get out more. You think too much in terms of a small country and in terms of a global world. You should expand your horizons. When I say that I’m flying to Israel, people tell me how dangerous it is over there, and I tell them that they shouldn’t talk things about which they know nothing. There’s a mistaken perception about true life in Israel. Tel Aviv’s night life is amazing; it’s as if the city is in the US.”
Janus is not deterred by the tough competition in Israel. Ricchebuono welcomes the challenge, saying, “Competition is a good thing. Janus isn't a one-stop-shop where you can buy everything you need, but creates supplementary products that specialize in the US equity market. The combination of our products with other products can yield the best results for investors.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on July 24, 2007
Cisco invests in Israeli start-up OpTier
The amount was not disclosed, but sources inform "Globes" that it is between $3 million and $5 million.
Batya Feldman 23 Jul 07 16:33
Networking equipment giant Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) announced today that it had made a strategic investment in Israeli start-up company OpTier and that it would collaborate with the Israeli data network management company. The amount of the investment was not disclosed, but sources inform "Globes" that it is between $3 million and $5 million.
The investment is in addition to OpTier's recent $15 million third round of funding from Gemini Israel Funds, Pitango Venture Capital, Carmel Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Since it was founded in 2002, OpTier has raised some $40 million from these funds.
OpTier, which was founded by a group of former Memco employees, provides software solutions for efficient management of enterprise information systems. Its flagship product is CoreFirst, which dynamically links business services to IT infrastructure, assuring service delivery and optimizing IT resources. The company's customers include some of the world's largest financial institutions and industrial and retail companies.
OpTier CEO and chairman Israel Mazin said today, "Collaboration with Cisco and Cisco's investment in OpTier reinforce our status and will accelerate our growth in the information systems management market. Our collaboration reflects our joint recognition of the needs of IT managers. It will allow customers to optimize their entire infrastructure to meet business needs through a unified business transaction view across servers and network tiers."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on July 23, 2007
Deutsche Bank: Israeli economy robust
The bank sees no interest rate hike before 2008.
Adi Ben Israel 18 Jul 07 17:10
Deutsche Bank says, “We continue to view Israel as one of the most robust economies in Europe, Middle East, and Africa region (EMEA). The growth picture is solid, the debt burden has declined, and the currency is competitive.”
The bank adds, “The external picture is particularly solid with Israel the only non-oil EMEA country projected to record a current account surplus in 2007 and the trade deficit has actually narrowed in spite of the deteriorating terms of trade position. Even stripping out the large transfers balance, which mostly comprises receipts from the US, the current account remains in surplus.
“An improved fiscal stance has meant the public debt burden has dropped from more than 100% of GDP in the mid-1990s to 86% at end 2006. Although the fiscal implications of last summer’s hostilities with Lebanon could push the debt burden up slightly this year, the general trend is downward.
“The shekel’s strength until mid-May meant inflation has been below the Bank of Israel’s 1-3% target range for nine months now. Although the recent shekel weakness, combined with more helpful base effects will serve to push CPI back within target by Q4 we see rate hikes as still some way off. Not only is inflation still significantly below target at -0.7% year-on-year (June), but the Bank of Israel only ended its easing cycle in May. We continue to see rates on hold at 3.5% until 2008.
“The country’s balance sheet has improved during recent years with Israel now a net external creditor on debt securities (24% GDP) although still a net debtor on equities (34% GDP). This rising stock of equity assets should also help to tip the income balance into positive territory during the coming years. We maintain our year end forecast of NIS 4.10/$ and reiterate our view that the shekel looks cheap compared with fair value. With no change in macro fundamentals to trigger the turnaround in the shekel’s fortunes a possible explanation is that the currency is beginning to react to the increasingly wide policy rate differential with both the US and Euroland.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on July 18, 2007
Morgan Stanley predicts 6% GDP growth for Israel
The investment bank tops the projections of both the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Israel, but says that both inflation and the interest rate will go up.
Gil Shlomo 18 Jul 07 10:38
Morgan Stanley predicts, “Given the lagged effects of monetary easing and the strength of the global economy, Israel’s real GDP growth will likely accelerate to around 6% this year and show no major correction in 2008. As a result, the output gap that used to be a source of disinflation will turn into an inflationary force.”
The investment bank concludes, therefore, “All the indicators - domestic as well as global - call for monetary tightening. The Bank of Israel should - and probably will - start increasing short-term interest rates in the coming months. In our view, that would support the shekel and help keeping the economy at the ‘sweet spot’ of low inflation and high growth.” Israel’s interest rate is 3.5%, compared with 5.25% in the US, resulting in a 175 basis point gap.
Morgan Stanley notes, “Consumer price inflation will keep rising in the remainder of this year. After a deflationary wave triggered by the shekel’s appreciation, consumer price inflation increased from minus 1.3% in May to minus 0.7% last month. And our projections show a sustained increase towards 2.5% by the end of the year. The strength of domestic demand will intensify inflationary pressures, in our view.
Morgan Stanley notes, “Currency fluctuations always play an important role in shaping inflation trends in Israel, largely because of historical linkages between domestic prices and the dollar. For that reason, it was not surprising to see the shekel’s appreciation leading to a wave of deflation since last October... The shekel’s strength was the one and only factor behind deflation and now its recent depreciation leads to a sudden, but unsurprising, jump in inflation. This is exactly why we have kept arguing that Israel already has “hidden” inflation and will experience a sustained increase once the shekel stabilizes. The strength of domestic demand will intensify inflationary pressures, in our view.
“Beyond the currency pass-through effect, we focus mainly on the strengthening of domestic demand that intensifies inflation pressures. It is not just because real GDP growth is running above its potential, but also because the composition of growth has shifted towards consumer spending. Even though export growth remains robust, private consumption is expanding at an accelerating pace - up from 4.8% in 2006 to 11.8% in the first quarter of this year. And the latest gauges (such as the consumer confidence index and automotive sales) show no sign of slowdown in domestic demand, thanks to improvements in the labor market, the wealth effect created by rising asset prices, and of course cheap financing. This is where we differ from the authorities who expect growth stabilization this year and a slowdown next year.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on July 18, 2007
Citigroup: Will shekel follow the zloty?
“If the shekel’s path follows that of the zloty in 2005, an appreciation should follow reasonably soon.”
Globes’ correspondent 17 Jul 07 11:29
Citigroup compares the shekel with the Polish zloty in a new review on emerging markets, and suggests that an appreciation is likely soon.
Citigroup says, “The depreciation of the Israeli shekel since mid-May appears to us to have a number of similarities with the sell-off in the Polish zloty that took place in early 2005. Since that earlier sell-off proved to temporary, we think there is at least an argument that the shekel will soon resume its tendency to appreciate. Here are some of the similarities between the Israeli story and the Polish one:
The appreciation of the zloty in 2004-05 and the shekel in 2006-07 was in each case a market response to an economic recovery following a relatively strong investment recession in the early part of this decade;
In both cases, the investment recession of the early 2000s had been associated with a big depreciation of each country’s real exchange rate. In real, trade-weighted terms, the peak-to-trough move in the shekel was approximately 25% between October 2000 and October 2005. For the zloty, the equivalent depreciation was 29% between February 2001 and February 2004.
The sell-off of the zloty in early 2005 proved short-lived, only around six weeks, in which it lost approximately half of the amount it had gained during the rally. For comparison, the current sell-off in the shekel has produced a move that is also equal to around half the amount it had gained during the rally.”
Citigroup concludes, “If the shekel’s path follows that of the zloty in 2005, an appreciation should follow reasonably soon.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on July 17, 2007
GDP to reach $150 billion this year
The debt to GDP ratio could reach 60%, the ceiling set under the provisions of the EU Maastricht Treaty.
Zeev Klein 12 Jul 07 14:09
Israel's GDP will reach $150 billion, or NIS 642.2 billion, in 2007, the Ministry of Finance announced today. The Second Lebanon War was the first time in Israel's history that economic growth following a war continued at the same pace as beforehand.
In the early 1990s GDP stood at $90 billion. Since the end of the intifada and its wave of terrorist attacks in 2003, GDP has grown by an aggregate NIS 114.3 billion in fixed prices.
Economic growth in real terms was 1.3% in mid-2003; 4.8% in 2004; 5.2% in 2005; 5.1% in 2006, and it is expected to reach 5% in 2007.
The Ministry of Finance forecasts 4.2% growth in 2008, with GDP reaching NIS 669.3 billion in fixed prices. According to Finance Ministry projections, the debt to GDP ratio could reach 60%, the ceiling set under the provisions of the EU Maastricht Treaty.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on July 12, 2007
Morgan Stanley raises Israel rating to "overweight"
The bank downgraded China and Brazil.
Erez Wollberg 15 Jul 07 11:19
"Bloomberg" reported on Friday that Morgan Stanley has upgraded its rating for Israeli equities to "Overweight" from "Equal Weight." The bank also raised its ratings for Malaysia and Mexico but downgraded Brazil and China.
The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) is currently at a high after the Tel Aviv 25 Index closed at 1,148.55 points on Thursday.
As opposed to Morgan Stanley, local banks have mixed views on the TASE's future direction. Bank Hapoalim remains optimistic, noting that "the positive atmosphere on the TASE is not over yet." Bank Leumi, on the other hand, is skeptical. "The risk level is still high," it warns.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on July 15, 2007
The Midas Touch (Lol, this is the original headline, not me]
"In the next five years, we'll make a number of significant investments in Israel"
Having staked his claim to fame with a number of successful investments that won him a place on the prestigious Midas List, Brent Ahrens, general partner at international venture capital fund, Canaan Partners, tells "Globes" where he is headed next.
Gali Weinreb 12 Jul 07 14:22
"I think that what is special about Israel is the contacts that people usually make while in the army. There's a kind of feeling that you know how to build loyal relationships that really can be relied on, and that you'll do anything not to let each other down. In the US we have more ego, we're more 'every man to himself.' It's harder to build a society when people don't trust one another fully."
These complimentary statements come from Brent Ahrens, general partner at international venture capital fund Canaan Partners, and formerly a senior executive at Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon Endo-Surgery, and who was included in the "Forbes" 2006 Midas List, a venture capital listing which ranks the best dealmakers in high-tech and life sciences. Ahrens was in Israel last month to attend the ILSI Biomed 2007 conference, eighteen months after Canaan opened its Israel office, which is managed by former Business Layers CEO Izhar Shay.
"I was lucky," Ahrens says of his entry to the Midas List. "I made an investment in a company called Peninsula Pharmaceuticals around four or five years ago. It found a number of drugs in Japan that had already undergone efficacy trials locally so we knew they worked, but we then had to repeat those trials in the US. The company was set to make a listing, but a few days earlier they called from Johnson & Johnson to say that they wanted to purchase one of our products. Peninsula's CEO did an amazing job of managing both processes simultaneously, at the end of which it was decided to abandon the listing and sell the company to Johnson & Johnson for $250 million. We took the rest of this company's products and formed a spin-off called Cerexa, which became one of last year's biggest acquisition deals in the field, when it was sold for $600 million in cash and a further $100 million in royalties. In addition, we invested in a company called DexCom, (which was floated in April 2005 at a value of $250 million). It was mainly these three deals that earned me a place on the Midas List."
A formula for an economic product
While he may be modest when talking about his own status, Ahrens shows no such inhibitions when talking about Canaan Partners in general. "I think that Canaan has the key to successful deals. Part of the secret is identifying arbitrage deals like, for example, what Peninsula did with the Japanese molecules - taking something that already has value in one place, to another where its value still hasn't been identified. In other cases, we took drugs or devices from a certain field and used them in another. And what was so successful about DexCom? They're producing a product for the continuous measurement of glucose, that is to say the disease in question is chronic, so the market is large, but on the other hand, the trial is short. Usually, long-term diseases (which have a large market, G.W.) have long trials while short-term diseases (whose markets are smaller, G.W.) have short trials. We look for opportunities that have the unique model of a large market and short trial, a model that makes the products much more economic."
Globes: What else do you look for in companies?
Ahrens: "First of all, management. I don't know what exactly it is that makes a successful manager, but the outcome is leadership, someone that can lead people into battle as well. Incidentally, there are occasions when someone has it at a certain moment in time, but doesn't have it at another.
"Second, we always look for a product that could have a giant market, a proven need that has no solution, where the product represents a ground-breaking development and brings with it renewal that will also grow the market. We will not invest in a solution that is too costly for patients to afford, or for insurance companies to finance."
These are pretty stiff requirements. Have you found anything in Israel that would meet them?
"We set up Canaan's Israeli branch in order to increase the number of investments we make in Israel. We have not made any investments in life sciences so far, but we have invested in Israeli companies in other fields (Mobilitec, Business Layers, LiveU, and UltraGuide, which actually did engage in medical device development, but before Ahren's time and which has since closed, G.W.). When I ask myself where the interesting life science activity is, it is only in the US, Western Europe, and Israel. We see ourselves investing here, in the future, in medical devices, and also in pharma and biotech. I believe that in the next five years, there will be a number of deals here worth an average of $12-15 million each. We usually invest in the preliminary rounds, second or third, although we're quite willing, on occasions, to invest at the seed stage too."
Why haven't the specialist international life sciences funds come to Israel yet?
"It's still a smaller market than high-tech, but I believe that it's only a matter of time."
Do you feel that the market in Israel has failed in terms of company financing, meaning that not enough good companies manage to raise funding?
"The only place where there may be a shortage of finance is biotech and it needs only an additional $100 million. There has been no market failure in medical devices or regular pharmaceuticals, neither at the seed nor the mezzanine stage. Not all the companies in the US are funded either. That's life."
What sort of contacts will you create for your companies with overseas parties?
"We're very much in favor of cooperation between our portfolio companies. We're quite radical about this, even to the point of promoting a merger between companies in the same field, although there are also looser collaborations. From time to time, we hold meetings of all the CEOs so that they can talk about their common problems, and we also arrange lectures for them by specialists in different fields."
And what does Ahrens think about Israel, besides admiring the sense of mutual friendship and trust? "There's a tremendous sense of technological inquisitiveness in Israel. People work very hard here and are not ready to take no for an answer, which is excellent but can also be very bad. For example, Israelis will not listen when they're told the market won't use the product. They're confident that they can educate the market and only give up after they’ve wasted a lot of money. They also find it a bit difficult to take a step back and see the big picture, and they don't plan far enough ahead.
"But at the end of the day, if you present an Israeli team with a complex technological problem, you have a better chance of getting a solution from them, I feel, than from anywhere else in the world. The creativity is very intense. Until now, this was channeled largely into medical devices, for reasons of lack of financing, but we're here now with money, and from now on this creativity can be channeled in the pharma and biotech fields as well. I feel that we can help the market grow. It's going to be really great."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on July 9, 2007
http://www.globes.co.il/serveEN/globes/docView.asp?did=1000231242&fid=1724
Hi Tim,
Nice to hear from you :)
Regards,
Dubi
Israel first in Middle East in battling corruption
By TheMarker and Reuters
Israel and the United Arab Emirates lead Middle Eastern countries in the fight against corruption and enacting laws that benefit business, according to a World Bank report.
The study, released Tuesday, measures factors such as controlling corruption, government accountability, political stability, press freedom and the absence of violence.
However, the bank's latest Worldwide Governance Indicators study of 212 countries from 1996 through 2006 shows little overall improvement in governance worldwide despite the increasing focus on the issue.
On all the measures except for political stability Israel received high marks, though still significantly lower than other developed countries.
In corruption control, Israel had a 79.6 percent score. This ranks below a fifth of the countries rated. High-scoring nations were Australia, 95.1 percent, Canada, 94.2 percent, Germany, 93.2 percent, France, 91.7 percent, and the U.S., 89.3 percent. In 2005 Israel received a 75 percent score on corruption control.
On the good governance scale, Israel received a reasonable score, 70 percent, which put it far ahead of its neighbors such as Syria, 36.2 percent, or Iran, 23.3 percent. However, the Emirates scored 69 percent, and Israel was again far behind Western nations such as Belgium, 91 percent, Germany, 94.3 percent, and the U.S., 91.9 percent. In 2005 Israel actually scored higher, 74 percent.
Israel's worst ranking came in political stability, 14.4 percent, which was also down from 19 percent in 2005. Israel thus ranks among African regimes such as Kenya, 15.4 percent, and Liberia, 12.5 percent.
In 2005 the World Bank considered Israel one of the riskiest countries in the Western world, with an unstable, inefficient and irresponsible government, and with a high level of corruption compared with developed countries.
The World Bank cautions against reading too much into global averages, and also reveals that some governments, including those in Africa, could make a difference relatively quickly when undertaking reforms.
These countries could expect a three-fold increase in per-capita income in the long term, the bank estimated.
"Until the mid-nineties, I did not think that governance could be measured. The Worldwide Governance Indicators have shown me otherwise," says Shlomo Yitzhaki, director of the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) and an economics professor at Hebrew University.
"It constitutes the state of the art on how to build periodic governance indicators that can be a crucial tool for policy analysts and decision-makers benchmarking their countries," he said.
"Uniquely, it publicly discloses the aggregated and disaggregated data, as well as the estimated margins of error for each country. It definitely sets a standard for transparency in data."
According to Daniel Kaufmann, an author of the report and director of global programs at the World Bank Institute: On average we do not find evidence around the world that governance has improved significantly. Whether it is rule of law or control of corruption, on average there is no compelling evidence.
In June, Kaufmann warned that even though Israel is considered one of the 50 leading nations in fighting corruption, in recent years there has been a deterioration in this area. He added that among industrialized nations, Israel was in the bottom five in every parameter related to good governance.
"The good news is this is just an average and hides enormous variation from one country to the other, and there are a large number of countries that are showing that in eight to 10 years, it is possible to significantly improve governance," Kaufmann said.
For example, between 1998 and 2006, there were improvements in democratic accountability in Sierra Leone and Niger, while the rule of law improved in Algeria, Liberia and Tajikistan.
Serbia and Tanzania were examples of countries that were able to better control corruption, the report said.
Still, the indicators also showed that governance deteriorated in Venezuela, Ivory Coast and Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile, Somalia, Myanmar, Equatorial Guinea, Haiti and Zimbabwe ranked lowest in terms of being able to control corruption.
Nordic countries such as Finland, Iceland, Denmark and Norway, as well as New Zealand, received the highest overall governance scores.
The latest indicators are based on hundreds of variables and views of thousands of individual and firms in surveys. They measure governance within the governments of the World Bank's member countries and have put the bank at odds against some governments, like China, which question whether the bank should be involved in rating countries on governance. The indicators show that China ranks in the bottom decile on voice and democratic accountability. Despite its governance shortcomings, the Asian giant has been able to attract vast foreign investment and enjoys fast-paced growth.
Elsewhere, Chile, Botswana, Costa Rica, Uruguay and Estonia are among more than a dozen developing countries that beat industrialized nations such as Greece or Italy on the governance scale.
"It is achievable to have high levels of governance while still being an emerging economy, which is a precursor of sustained growth," Kaufmann added.Being part of the industrialized world did not mean countries escaped governance challenges. "Not so," he said. "The countries that set the standards for governance include the Nordic countries, New Zealand and a few others, but by no means all the countries in the G7 are necessarily at the top," he added.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/880994.html
OT: Good day Midas. Hope you are doing well.
Treasury forecast: Economy to grow 5 percent this year
By Moti Bassok
The economy is set to grow 5 percent this year and 4.2 percent in 2008, according to economic forecasts for 2007-2008 published yesterday by the Finance Ministry. Inflation this year will reach 2.1 percent, and 2.0 percent next year. Unemployment is also predicted to continue to drop.
Finance Minister Roni Bar-On has submitted to the government the treasury's macro-economic forecast for this year and next, as well as a review of the state of the economy in 2006 and the first quarter of this year. The report was submitted in advance of the first debate on the 2008 budget, which is slated for this Sunday. The forecast and review were prepared by the head of the treasury's Economics and Research department, Dr. Eldad Shidlovsky.
Cabinet discussions on the 2008 budget will center around the need to cut the budget by about NIS 9 billion, and demands to increase the defense budget by at least NIS 3 billion, in accordance with the Brodet Commission recommendations.
The Finance Ministry assesses the main macro risks to the economy to be a renewal of security unrest, and a substantial slowdown of the global economy. On the other hand, there is a potential for higher than forecasted growth rates, if the government scrupulously maintains a responsible economic policy.
According to the treasury's forecast, the percentage of Israelis employed in the economy increased in 2007 by 3.7 percent to 2.67 million, and is expected to grow by 2.5 percent in 2008 to 1.73 million.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/880995.html
John Deere to buy Plastro
The US firm will acquire Plastro's controlling shareholder Gvat Agriculture.
Gil Shlomo and Adi Ben Israel 12 Jul 07 13:01
US agricultural equipment giant John Deere is seeking to gain full control of Plastro Irrigation Systems Ltd. (TASE: PLSTR),which is currently controlled by Kibbutz Gvat through Gvat Agriculture and Business ACS Ltd.
The acquisition will be transacted in two stages: Plastro's current controlling shareholder, Kibbutz Gvat, which holds the company through Gvat Agriculture and Business ACS Ltd., will acquire the public's stake at NIS 13.60 per share, giving it 100% ownership. In the second stage, John Deere will acquire Gvat Agriculture.
The offer is contingent on approval by Kibbutz Gvat's members.
Plastro was previously targeted by its rival, Netafim Ltd., which in April made an offer of NIS 11-13 for Kibbutz Gvat's stake in Plastro, similar to today's offer by John Deere.
Plastro chairman Joseph Hevron said, "Today's move represents the start of a significant expansion in Plastro's irrigation activity worldwide, and it has created an extraordinary opportunity for our workers, suppliers and partners to benefit from the fruits of the deal."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on July 12, 2007
As Israel Prospers, Some Fear Its Defenses May Grow Soft
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118278573665647174.html
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By PETER WALDMAN
June 26, 2007
MOSHAV BNEI ZION, Israel -- For 60 years, this farming cooperative near Tel Aviv has been a bulwark of Zionism. Its original 97 families cultivated grapefruit and oranges for export, and molded their teenagers for elite combat jobs in the Israel Defense Forces.
Today, the moshav's old chicken coop houses an industrial-design firm and a company that makes steering-wheel sensors to alert dozing drivers. In a corner office, a real-estate broker moonlights as a feng shui consultant. Several farm lots have been sold off for multimillion-dollar homes, inhabited by suburban families whose kids have only tenuous links to the youth groups that kindled Zionist spirit here for decades.
The makeover shows how Israel has flourished beyond the wildest dreams of the ardent socialists who founded the Jewish state. Powered by high-tech exports, the Israeli economy grew 6.3% in the first quarter this year, with a 28% jump in personal consumption of durable goods, such as cars and refrigerators. Sales of Porsches doubled in 2006 from 2004, and last year Lexus opened shop in the Jewish state.
Yet prosperity has not brought security. As Israelis begin another summer fraught with regional instability, some are pondering a troubling question: Is the idea of an advanced consumer society, with its attendant individualism, compatible with the solidarity and focus required to defend a small state bordered by hostile neighbors? And could the growing gap between poor and wealthy Israelis undermine its national drive to protect itself?
Such concerns have grown particularly stark in recent months, as Israel has grappled with a crisis of confidence. Last summer's military stalemate with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas's recent conquest of the Gaza Strip over rival Palestinians have reinforced Israeli worries that it takes more than a high-tech army to address the terror and missile threats it faces from enemies on its borders. Later this summer, the independent Winograd Commission, appointed by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, will release its review of last summer's war. The commission's harsh preliminary report suggests it will recommend an overhaul of Israel's national-security system, and possibly the resignation of Mr. Olmert himself.
One lesson from last summer's war: Even the world's best precision-guided weapons, fired from the most advanced military aircraft, can't quell a committed guerrilla force on the ground without support from trained and tested combat troops. Now the question is whether Israelis, like citizens in many developed countries, are losing the stomach for that sort of slog.
"If Israel is a shopping mall in a jungle of extremism," says columnist Ari Shavit of the Ha'aretz newspaper, "the challenge is keeping the mall going from within, while protecting it from without."
At the center of the commitment quandary is Tel Aviv, Israel's go-go commercial hub and its most westernized city. After last summer's war, the Israeli army's chief of human resources, Maj. Gen. Elazar Stern, sparked a public furor when he decried that just three out of Israel's 119 war dead came from Tel Aviv, a city of 380,000 inhabitants and Israel's second-largest after Jerusalem. By contrast, the West Bank settlement of Eli -- population 2,500 -- lost three soldiers as well.
Evading Service
Tel Aviv's count would be expected to be higher, because military service is obligatory for men and women in Israel. Gen. Stern attributed the disparity to Tel Aviv teenagers' high rate of evading service and low enlistment rate, compared with the national average, in combat units. He also castigated Israeli society at large for going soft. "In this war, I had a feeling that the value of human life was above sticking to the mission," Gen. Stern told the paper Yediot Ahronot.
Moshav Bnei Zion, just 16 miles north of Tel Aviv, is a showcase for the changes roiling Israeli society. In the past decade, several of Israel's richest tycoons have bought large farm lots here from the original moshavniks and built Beverly Hills-style mansions. Their arrival has pushed the "Tel Aviv bubble," as Israelis call the Western aura that envelops the financial capital, into the nation's heartland, spreading the tension in Israeli society between sacrifice and self-aggrandizement.
Founded in 1947, Moshav Bnei Zion was structured on the semicollective model forged by the first moshavim in the 1920s. In a moshav, residents farm their own plots as well as community land, and share the profits. They own their homes and manage their own financial and family affairs. This contrasts with the better-known kibbutzim, where members have traditionally resided in community-owned housing and drawn on communal resources for everything from meals to vacations to child rearing.
Moshavim and kibbutzim were both instrumental in fulfilling the early Zionists' goal of transforming waves of Jewish refugees into farmers, factory workers and soldiers. Largely secular, the founding Zionists envisioned a place where Jews, through strength and self-reliance, could make a break from centuries of anti-Semitism in Europe. Such a Jewish state, the thinking went, would serve as an egalitarian model for the rest of the world.
Steeped in Zionist ideology, Israel's farming collectives produced many of the country's statesmen and military leaders, from the first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, to Six-Day War hero Moshe Dayan and the highly decorated Ehud Barak, Israel's current defense minister. While kibbutzim have never accounted for more than 7% of Israel's population, as many as half the pilots in the Israeli air force have hailed from the communal farms.
In recent years, the socialist ideals of the founding Zionists have given way to one of the most successful entrepreneurial economies on earth. In place of solidarity, some Israelis argue, there is a growing gap between haves and have-nots. Rates of poverty are high among the country's 20% Arab population, but are also growing among Israeli Jews. Though the average Israeli salary has risen steadily, to more than $22,000 a year currently, one in four families live below the official poverty line. The poverty rate among children is 35%.
Rich and poor live side by side at Moshav Bnei Zion. One of the first tycoons to move here was Shari Arison, who controls Israel's largest bank and is the daughter of the late Ted Arison, founder of Carnival Corp. cruise lines. She paid $1.3 million for her 2.5-acre lot in 1997. In 2005, Noam Lanir, an online-gambling impresario, bought the same-size lot next door for $3.5 million.
Prices for modest homes in the moshav are also soaring. Several 3,000-square-foot houses built a decade ago for children of the founding families have recently sold for more than $1 million each. In the adjoining community of Harutzim, built in the 1950s to house North African immigrants, stucco "Sachnut specials" -- tiny bungalows named for the Jewish Agency that threw them up -- look like servants' quarters next to the new, bougainvillea-draped villas on the same quiet lanes.
The moshav's 300-student school, Hovev, serves the children of the North Africans, farming families and wealthy newcomers. Talia Naim, a 22-year-old kindergarten teacher who grew up here, has noticed a dramatic change in just the past five years. She and her friends came of age in the cocoon of their Zionist youth movement, Farmers' Unity. They spent their teen years on hikes, at campfires and songfests, and doing community projects.
Today, the teacher says, the suburbanites who have moved into the area stick more to their private worlds. Many of her 17-year-old sister's peers come and go as they please, with their own cars and motorcycles. Instead of attending Farmers' Unity summer camp, the affluent kids travel abroad. "They're spoiled," Ms. Naim says.
Real-estate agent Yoav Hadari is torn by the transformation he has helped propel. He and his family pulled up stakes in Tel Aviv seven years ago for a home with a garden on the moshav. As the first-generation immigrants have died off in neighboring Harutzim, Mr. Hadari has done a brisk business selling their bungalows to commuters who've ripped down the old structures and built large houses on the lots. He fields frequent inquiries from real-estate speculators in the U.S. and Europe. He also gets calls from ultra-orthodox Jews in Israel and abroad, whose black-clad sects are considering nearby farmland for new communities, he says.
Despite his success, the 41-year-old broker, who has a side business advising clients in the Chinese design principles of feng shui, says he's fed up with what he calls Israel's "post-Zionist culture." A land and people that once stood for something have become nearly indistinguishable from other Western consumer societies, he argues. His 11-year-old daughter belongs to the Farmers' Unity movement on the moshav, "but it's all about exploring nature. It has nothing to do with Zionism any more," he says.
Avid Surfer
He's thinking about pulling up stakes again for a new suburb in a more tranquil place. An avid surfer, Mr. Hadari wants to move to Australia, where his sister-in-law's family fled a few years ago from a rash of Palestinian terror attacks. "It's not worth the struggle," he says.
Many Israelis have also grown weary from decades of unremitting conflict. Ron Gazit, whose family owns a café next to the moshav, grew up attending a Zionist youth movement and served in Lebanon a decade ago as an elite paratrooper. He loves life in Israel, he says, but he recently secured European passports for his family, a hot trend among Israelis of European origin. He is considering emigrating with his wife and baby girl.
"When my father and grandfather fought in wars, they each believed their children would one day live in peace. But now I have more experience," says Mr. Gazit, 33. "Every 10 years there's a clash, and every 10 years it's more extreme."
Col. Tziki Sela, the Israel Defense Forces' head of manpower, says the country's young remain firmly committed to fulfilling their conscription obligations. More reservists than needed volunteered to serve in last summer's war, including many Israelis who flew back from homes overseas, he says. And despite the conflict's mixed results, the number of applicants for combat units from this year's enlistment class jumped 4% over last year, defying the army's expectation of a drop, says Col. Sela.
It's the longer-term trends that worry many Israelis. The number of draftees requesting psychological discharge is also on the rise -- up 7% from a decade ago, Col. Sela says. Most of these people are perfectly healthy shirkers, the colonel believes, who are exploiting a lax evaluation process for personal gain. "There's a lot of pressure on youngsters to get out and earn money," Col. Sela says.
To crack down, the military is developing tighter psychological screening procedures and a new category of dishonorable discharge to stigmatize fakers, the colonel says. Also under development is a plan that would, for the first time, create incentives for Israelis to prolong service in the more-dangerous army units. Code-named "star certificate," the award would entitle selected veterans to discounts on consumer goods, vacations and other services, Col. Sela says.
The heart of the Tel Aviv bubble is Allenby Street, where the dance clubs don't rev up until after 2 a.m. In the predawn heat on a recent morning, music and young bodies rippled onto the sidewalks, as a clutch of half-a-dozen revelers wandered between bars.
They resent Tel Aviv's image as mammon, the youngsters say. "What's wrong with wanting a normal life?" asks Rotem Levy, 23. "It's global. People everywhere think more about themselves nowadays."
Though members of this group say they served in the army, they all have friends who received psychological deferments for dubious reasons. One of their buddies, they say, told the army he hears ghosts; another said he's a bed-wetter. A third described an inch-tall companion who converses with him from a perch on his shoulder.
"People don't want to waste three years in the army when they could be starting their careers," says Adi Cohen, 23.
Religious Israelis, whose commitment to the land is rooted in scripture, are filling the gap. "We teach kids it is beautiful to serve your country and care for your neighbor," says Eitan Mor-Yosef, head of Bnei-Akiva, a national youth movement that pairs Zionism with orthodox religious training. "If people move away from traditional Judaism and the Torah, they lose their idealism."
With government funds, Bnei-Akiva has opened more than 80 religious high schools in the past 15 years, Mr. Mor-Yosef says, and tripled its youth-group membership, to 75,000 children. It also operates religious schools for soldiers. The group is strongest in nonaffluent areas: The group's membership has soared in Jerusalem and in poorer areas of central and southern Israel, he says, while chapters have dwindled in Tel Aviv and in some wealthy suburbs nearby.
Observant Jews now account for a growing proportion of military personnel, Mr. Mor-Yosef says. Though about 20% of Israeli Jews are observant, the religious make up roughly 40% of the army, he says, up from less than 15% two decades ago. The army says it doesn't track such figures, and a spokesman says he believes Mr. Mor-Yosef's percentage is high.
Traditional left-wing Zionist groups believe the solution lies not in religious training, but in wiping out the wealth gap -- by restoring the welfare state. Over the past decade, economic changes have eroded the socialist infrastructure of the founding Zionists, from numerous moshavim and kibbutzim to national labor and health-care systems. State subsidies for families, based on size, have also been slashed.
Bomb Shelters
As a result, Israel has broken its compact with the people, says Chagit Shvarzman, 25, an organizer with the General Federation of Students and Young Workers, one of the oldest and largest Zionist youth groups. During last summer's war, she says, thousands of Israelis in the north went hungry in bomb shelters. No one came to help, she says, because the government had privatized relief duties to companies that fled when the missiles fell. The Israeli government is reviewing procedures so that never happens again.
"A lot of reservists saw how the state treated those people," Ms. Shvarzman says. "The next war, they won't understand why they should go."
Her youth group is attempting to revive the spirit of Zionism through new kibbutzim organized not as farms but as educational collectives. At one experiment, at the Ayalon Institute in the central city of Rehovot, 23 young people live communally and many work as tour guides at an old bullet factory located 25 feet beneath the kibbutz bakery. At its peak in the 1940s, the clandestine plant produced 40,000 bullets a day for Jewish fighters battling for independence.
One of the guides, Yuval Katzir, says Israelis are reaching a "crucial time." They must restore Zionism's quest to build a moral society, or face worsening internal alienation, he says. Israel can't be just another high-tech suburb along the global consumer highway, he argues.
"Israel isn't France," says Mr. Katzir, 26. "If it's not just and good, it won't last."
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US and Israel to expand BIRD Foundation
The foundation’s capital is expected to double to $220 million.
Ran Dagoni, Washington 25 Jun 07 12:23
The US and Israeli governments will probably greatly expand their support for the Israel-United States Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation, BIRD Foundation executive director Dr. Eitan Yudilevich told “Globes”. He made the comment during events marking the foundation’s 30th anniversary.
Yudilevich said that no formal agreement had yet been reached, but that the two governments would probably double the BIRD Foundation’s capital, which finances joint ventures by US and Israeli companies. The foundation currently has $110 million in capital, which is expected to reach $220 million. “Doubling the BIRD Foundation’s capital will enable the foundation to double its activity, in other words, to increase the number of ventures that we will be able to support, increase investment in each venture, or decide how to combine the two options,” he said.
The BIRD Foundation supports joint ventures by US and Israeli high-tech companies by finding strategic partners in the two countries and financing the development of joint products. Over the past 30 years, the foundation has funded 740 projects, which have generated $8 billion in direct and indirect sales.
The BIRD Foundation supports projects without receiving in exchange any rights in the participating companies or in the projects. The investment is repaid solely from royalties, in the event that a project reaches market, which does not always happen. The foundation does not require companies to refund investments in failed projects.
Yudilevich said that the development of green technologies, especially renewable energy, and homeland security and antiterrorism projects would be the foundation’s priorities as it enters its fourth decade of activity. This trend was the reflected in the 30th anniversary speeches.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on June 25, 2007
"OECD entry spells end of Israel's capital market"
Merrill Lynch's Haim Israel: Foreign investment will stop once Israel is defined as a developed market.
Shay Niv 20 Jun 07 16:07
It appears that not everyone is enthusing about Israel's imminent admission to the OECD. Merrill Lynch research analyst Haim Israel warned today of the negative impact of the move. "Israel's admission to the community of developed markets may be cause for celebration for the politicians, but it will be a mortal blow to the Israeli capital market."
Israel, who was addressing 150 CFOs at the annual CFO Forum in Eilat, said that the local economy accounts for just 2% of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, and its share in the global investment pie would fall to 0.2% if Israel is admitted to the developed markets index. "The moment Israel is defined as a developed rather than an emerging market, not one foreign investor will invest time and resources here, and this will herald the end of the era of foreign investment in Israel," he predicted, adding that the switch to the developed market category would be a "natural disaster."
"Although we may think that we're the center of the world and that the Israeli capital market is among the leaders, in practice Israel is traded at "Under Perform" in terms of foreign investors. Although foreign investment in Israel has totaled $1 billion since the beginning of the year, it is only 63% of Israel's share on the emerging markets index," said Israel.
Tal Liani, telecommunications analyst at Merrill Lynch, tried to sound a note of optimism after the dire predictions of his colleague. "We are looking at it from the narrow, rather than the broader perspective. True, we are not growing like India and China, and there's nothing that can be done about that. So Israel does not entirely fit into the emerging market category. In the final analysis, Israel is the third largest country in the world in terms of technology, and we should all remember this," he said.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on June 20, 2007
Israel fears bee-killing disease heading this way
By SHELLY PAZ
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Israeli beekeepers and the Agriculture Ministry's Beekeeping Division are making plans for a possible outbreak of Colony Collapse Disorder, a phenomenon that has resulted in the mysterious deaths of 2.4 billion bee colonies and 10 billion bees in the US, according to the American National Honey Board.
Citing Albert Einstein's saying to the effect that mankind would become extinct four years after honey bees disappeared from the face of the earth, Haim Efrat, head of the Beekeeping Division, said he'd rather sound the alarm than be complacent."I don't mind if I turn out to be wrong and I say it clearly: We have Colony Collapse Disorder here in Israel. Though we are not even close to the problem they face in the US and Canada, tomorrow morning we could wake up to a severe case of the phenomenon."
CCD was identified in the US last October. Variously called autumn collapse, May disease, spring dwindle, disappearing disease and fall dwindle disease, it was initially thought to be a seasonal disease. Honey bee colonies have died out in great numbers in US states such as Georgia, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and California, and in Canada, and in small numbers in India, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Taiwan.
Colony Collapse Disorder is characterized by sudden colony death, with a lack of adult bees in or near the hives. Honey and beebread (a brownish mixture of pollen and honey that is used by bees as food) are usually present and there is often evidence of recent brood rearing. In some cases, the queen and a small number of survivor bees may be present in the brood nest.
"Besides the threat to honey production, the bee is know to be the main pollinate insect in nature, and without its services, as much as third of the crops we consume might collapse as well - foods such as almonds, corn, wheat, avocado, watermelon, apples, pears, cherries, seeds and more," said Dan Weil, the honey and bees information manager at Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, the biggest honey producer in Israel.
CCD's cause is unknown, but there are several suspects: the long-term use of insecticides; a reaction between beeswax and insecticides used against Varroa Destructor pest; a weakening in the bees' immune systems as a result of viruses; genetically engineered crops such as cotton and corn that produce a toxin called Bacillus Thuringiensis; and possible malnutrition in bees that are fed highly sugared "snacks."
Probably the most offbeat cause suggested is damage to the bees' orientation skills by cellular magnetic fields that make them lose their way back to their hives.
"Israel is ranked as one of the most dense countries in the world when it comes to cellular and magnetic fields, so if that was the case, we would be the first to be damaged by CCD," Weil said.
So far, Israel's honey and bees have suffered only slight damage. But beekeepers and the specialists at the Agriculture Ministry are worried. In recent years, they have reported a reduction of 25-30 percent in annual honey production. In addition, starting in the spring of 2005, there have been several reports of weakened beehives that displays symptoms compatible with CCD.
"Lately, there have been cases we find hard to explain," said Boaz Kanot, a commercial beekeeper from Moshav Avigdor in the South. "Beehives that seem perfectly healthy and normal don't manage to produce the same amount of honey as before. The common belief among the specialists and the beekeepers is that the beehives keep weakening due to the use of the insecticide against Varroa mites," Kanot said.
"Right now, we are concentrating on educating and guiding Israel's beekeepers. Every year, we provide them with direction on what treatments and medications to give to the bees, and when, and we demand more frequent visits to the beehives to prevent sudden surprises," Efrat said regarding efforts to prevent CCD from spreading in Israel.
"The Israeli honey system is quite different from the American one. It's much smaller and crowded - only 95,000 beehives on 7,000 square kilometers. Its annual revenue is around NIS 100 million, both from honey production and from pollination services for other agricultural crops. But above all, our system is much more organized," said Efrat.
"We are strict on cleaning and recycling the beeswax. Every year we melt the beeswax from the beehives and produce clean and new beeswax foundations on which we imprint cells from both sides. By doing this, we save a lot of the bees' energy. They don't have to built their honeycombs from scratch. This also helps keep the beehives and the honey clean from the remainders of toxins and insecticides the bees bring from the fields along with the flower nectar."
Although the American beekeepers' technology is much more advanced and its honey system is better funded, it lacks the uniformity and supervision of its Israeli counterpart. And replacing the beeswax foundations every year is not customary in the US.
The general assumption in Israel is that some sort of insecticide that is used in the US in great amounts caused the bees to lose their way back to their hives.
"Both we and the Americans use the same classic insecticide against the Varroa infestation. In the US it is also used to eliminate small hive beetles. This is a strong and efficient substance, and we don't yet know its implications for the long term. While we use it at half of the recommended dose only once a year, the Americans use it four to five times a year at its full dose each time," Efrat said. "I hope our assumption is right so that the threat is eliminated soon, but our guess is no better than any other guess," he said.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=2&cid=1181813037052&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%...
Goldman Sachs meeting draws business leaders
Chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein: We met in Israel because of its strong economy.
Shiri Habib, Zeev Klein and Hadas Magen 12 Jun 07 17:09
The arrival in Israel of the heads of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS) resulted in one of the largest productions seen here in a long while, and included the country’s business elite.
Last night, Goldman Sachs held its board meeting at the Tower of David Museum at Jaffa Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem, with the bank’s chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein presiding. This was the first time that Israel hosted the board meeting of one of the world’s largest and most important international investment banks. He said that the investment held one board meeting a year away from its New York headquarters, and that Israel was chosen this year because of its strong economy and its companies.
Before the board meeting, the directors met Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who said, “I am proud that you chose to convene your board meeting in Jerusalem. The fact that a major financial institution, one of the most important in the world, is holding working meetings of this kind is very significant for us. What we still need is for global companies such as yours to invest in Israel. Israel has much to offer and I hope that you will exhaust the opportunities provided by the Israeli economy.”
The discretely organized event accompanying the board included 160 of Israel’s business leaders, including Nochi Dankner, Yitzhak Tshuva, Lev Leviev, Shari Arison, Shlomo Nehama, Zadik Bino, Mordechai Zisser, Joseph Maiman, Galia Maor, Yair Hamburger, Idan ofer, Dan Dankner, Zvi Ziv, Igal Ahouvi, Shlomo Yanai, Erez Vigodman, Avraham Bigger, Yossi Vardi, Shlomo Dovrat, Ron Lubash, Amos Shapira, Dov Moran, Michael Federmann, Chaim Katzman, and Ofra Strauss. Following the catered dinner, the participants watched a performance by the Batsheva Dance Company and a recital by Yitzhak Perlman.
Goldman Sachs has recently been involved in several offerings by Israeli companies, including the IPOs of Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE:CEL) and AFI Development plc (LSE:AFID), the secondary offering by Ormat Technologies Inc. (NYSE: ORA), and Hewlett Packard Co.’s (NYSE:HPQ) $4.5 billion acquisition of HP-Mercury Interactive, and is an investor in LanOptics Ltd. (Nasdaq: LNOP; TASE:LNOP) and start-up Oberon Media Ltd.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on June 12, 2007
'83 percent of Israelis content'
Central Bureau of Statistic survey reveals Israelis are happy with life generally; 76 percent would continue working even if they didn't have to
Ynet Published: 06.13.07, 12:17 / Israel Money
A recent survey has revealed that 83 percent of Israelis are, in general, content.
According to the survey, Israelis were as satisfied in 2006 as they were in previous years and as satisfied as people in other developed countries. The findings showed that there was a direct correlation between levels of income and education to satisfaction.
Israeli adults appear to be among the more optimistic adults in developed countries.
Those who immigrated to Israel in the 1990s and later tend to be less optimistic than those who were born here or immigrated earlier; those unemployed are less happy than working people; and older people are less content and optimistic than their younger counterparts.
The survey found that 53 percent of the adult population was satisfied financially, a higher percentage than in the last few years.
Among the participants, 44 percent believe that their financial situation will probably improve in the next few years, 33 percent think that it will remain the same and 12 percent expect their financial situation to worsen.
The study showed that 55 percent of Israelis (58 percent among Jews and 36 percent among Arabs) could make ends meet. Youngsters between the ages of 20 and 24, and people over the age of 65 are more likely to manage to cover all their monthly expenses.
Eighty-four percent of all employed people are pleased with their jobs. The survey revealed that working women were happier than working men and working Jews were more contented than working Arabs. Here too, there is a direct correlation between the level of education to satisfaction from work.
Four percent of those employed are very worried about losing their jobs, while 83 percent of employees are not concerned at all. If they were to lose their jobs, 51 percent think that they have a good chance of finding a job with similar or higher income.
When asked what they would do if they were financially secure, 76 percent said they would continue working even if they didn't have to.
The survey was conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2006.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3412237,00.html
Israeli engineers develop mobile bomb shelters
By Avi Hein May 30, 2007
With residents of Sderot and its surroundings suffering a daily Kassam missile bombardment from the Gaza Strip, Israeli ingenuity has developed a solution to try to make life for residents as normal as possible - mobile bomb shelters.
"We came up with the concept of these portable shelters that can be deployed and redeployed as security needs change," said Josh Adler, the co-founder of Operation Lifeshield, a new organization that is behind the initiative.
Currently the only mobile air-raid shelters designed to meet the strict requirements of Israel's Home Front Command, the 42-ton steel reinforced shelters - called 'LifeShields' - were designed in coordination with the Command and an Israeli engineering firm in Bet She'an.
While some homes have shelters and communal shelters can be found in many neighborhoods, their fixed location forces residents to remain there for hours and days at a time. Children cannot play outside, playgrounds and fields remain empty, and people are shuttered in - fearing that otherwise, the next time a rocket hits, they will not be near a shelter.
Adler and his partner in the endeavor, recent American immigrant Shep Alster, were volunteering in the north of Israel during last summer's Second Lebanon War when they saw the need for mobile shelters.
"War broke out and we went up north to distribute food. During that process, we became aware of the acute lack of shelters in general and the complete lack of shelters in the open area. There's no place to take cover in the open," he explained. So, Adler, who has lived in Israel since 1976 and works in the building business decided to do something about it.
In order to give people a better quality of life, and allow them to leave their homes and shelters, portable shelters could provide the solution.
"The main idea here is to have them spread out in places where people are caught out in the open. It's designed to save lives where there is no shelter. We needed something that could be done quickly, efficiently, and could be redeployable. Redeployability was definitely a major player here. We needed something that could be built in a factory and brought on a crane very quickly," Adler told ISRAEL21c.
While portable shelters have existed for many years, they were rare and outdated and none could meet the Home Front Command's rigid requirements. Last year Adler and Alster put together a team to devise the plan for their shelters, which included representatives from the Command, civil engineer Haim Finkelstein and a Beit She'an company Orpaz Engineering, which came up with a final engineering plan.
"Each shelter has the power of shielding many civilians in communities without sufficient means of protection, while also allowing these suffering people to go out, study, play and lead a normal life - knowing refuge is at hand whenever the air raid sirens sound," said Adler
With the shelters designed, however, Adler and Alster realized that funding was not available for the municipalities in question - like Sderot - to purchase them. That led them to Operation LifeShield. Modeled on the Magen David Adom model in which people can donate ambulances to Israel's emergency services, Operation LifeShield, enables interested parties to donate the shelters - which the partners dubbed 'LifeShields'.
Launched in late May, Operation LifeShield has already provided four shelters to Sderot and to locations in northern Israel. "We eagerly welcome the Operation LifeShield initiative, a viable solution that has come at such a critical time for Sderot," stated Sderot's mayor, Eli Moyal, upon the delivery of a LifeShield shelter to a local kindergarten.
What's the secret behind these unique shelters? "One of the main features that has become a requirement is a material called 'flexdek' which is a 1.2 mm-thick galvanized kind of sheeting. It's placed in with the concrete and becomes a part of the concrete. That adds an extra 15-20% of strength," reports Adler.
Each shelter is inspected and certified by a licensed concrete inspection laboratory, a structural engineer, and a licensed electrician. These transportable shelters can prevent the penetration of bullets, shrapnel, and missile fragments, as well as withstand a direct hit from some types of missiles.
While currently only deployed in Israel, Adler says that the device has already piqued the interest of other organizations. "We've had some interest from the UN," he said, noting that officials visited the Israeli factory that makes LifeShields. "People have expressed the feeling that this could be used around the world."
Yossi Ben-Baruch, project manager of Orpaz Engineering, told WorldTribune.com that he envisioned sales outside of Israel. "This can be exportable in the next stage," he said.
In addition to the LifeShields, Adler is already busy on his next project - a fortified bus stop shelter. The bus stop shelter "looks and functions like a regular bus stop, but can withstand a direct hit from a Kassam missile. It also has a little inner room that can hold 8-10 people. The idea is to have these bus stops spread out throughout busy streets," explained Adler, adding that the Home Front Command has approved of the design.
Though the Operation LifeShield shelters and bus stops cannot provide Sderot and other communities with peace, it can offer them peace of mind.
"It's designed to save lives," said Adler.
http://www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enDispWho=Articles%5El1668&enPage=BlankPage&enDisplay=vi...
Israeli stocks ring the bells in the US and UK
By Laura Goldman June 10, 2007
Israeli companies are the belle of the ball on the world's stock exchanges. With 90 Israeli-related companies on NASDAQ, the country is the number one foreign issuer on the US exchange, ahead of countries with stronger economies like China, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Cliff Goldstein, the president of Amidex 35 Israel Mutual Fund, has made it his life's mission to promote investment in stocks of Israeli companies. The Amidex-35 fund is the only US registered index mutual fund investing exclusively in Israeli companies. This index, consisting of the 35 largest companies in Israel rebalanced each year has appreciated 120% in the last five years. By way of comparison, the NASDAQ index has only returned 72% during the same time period. Buying blue and white (the colors of the Israeli flag) would have increased the returns of your portfolio by 50%.
"All investments have some risk. But there is no additional risk to investing in Israeli companies," Goldstein told ISRAEL21c. "That may have been truer in the earliest day of the country but definitely not now. There is currently over $200 billion of market capitalization in Israeli stocks."
According to investment professionals like Goldstein, stocks of Israeli companies have defied gravity and earned stratospheric returns for their investors. These stocks, they say, are now analyzed on the basis of their own individual economic and technology reality not their country of origin. There is no longer an Israel discount in the marketplace.
This is especially true after the Second Lebanon War. Despite dire predictions that the war would paralyze industry in the country, business in Israel even if forced to be conducted in bomb shelters or remote locations did not miss a beat during the war.
"This is something we have proved over and over again," said Gadi Beer, manager of the Amidex35. "There is no correlation between the political and economic events in Israel. Israelis (companies) on US exchanges initially reacted to the breaking news and bounced right back. For example, two weeks before the Lebanon war last July, Teva dropped from $36 to $31 a share. By the end of the war Teva closed again at $36. Another good example is Amdocs. The billing company was trading at $34 a share on July 12, by the end of the war it closed close to $40. And finally, companies like Elbit Systems actually do better in this environment just because of their focus on the military."
There are six companies included on NASDAQ with market capitalizations of over $1 billion. In descending order, they are Teva Pharmaceuticals, Checkpoint, Partner Communications, Nice Systems, Elbit Systems, and Elbit Medical. The total market capitalization of Israeli companies on NASDAQ is $50 billion.
Forbes highlighted Teva's achievements by listing it as one of its 130 global superstars for the year 2007. Since the company went public in 1982, it has appreciated 4,000%. But that's not the only impressive Israeli investment.
* Investors in defense contractor Elbit Systems have earned 10 times their initial investment.
* Software firms Checkpoint and Nice Systems have returned about 700% to their investors since their IPOs during the '90s.
* Mobile phone operator Partner doubled this year, and Partner's major investor Hutchinson Whampoa is more than satisfied.
"American investors appreciate the ambition, technology, management and experience of Israeli companies. They no longer see them as foreign companies. They evaluate them like they would an American company," said Asaf Homossany, managing director of NASDAQ Israel.
So many investors were clamoring for the initial public offering of mobile phone operator Cellcom in February that the underwriters had to add one million shares to the offering and priced it significantly above the original price range to meet all the demand.
Since this was not a technology company but a pure play on the Israel consumer economy, the huge appetite by institutional investors for the stock was a vote of confidence in the Israeli economy. The stock has appreciated another 20% since the offering.
International stock exchanges and investment banks are clamoring for listings of Israeli companies, and most of the major investment banks like Merrill Lynch, Jeffries, William Blair, UBS, and Lehman Brothers have set up shop in Tel Aviv or visit frequently. Goldman Sachs is even having its next board of directors meeting in Jerusalem.
"The high level of science taught at the universities has transformed Israeli companies into some of the worlds' most profitable," said Ranan Lachman, an investment banker from Oppenheimer who visits Israel frequently to scout for companies.
In the US, the competition is intense between the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ for Israeli companies. Catherine McKinney, the president and co-chief operating officer of the New York Stock Exchange, Euronext, visited Tel Aviv in January and rang the opening bell of the Tel Aviv Exchange.
One official of the New York Stock Exchange said: "There is an appetite from American investors for Israeli companies. There is enormous respect for what Israel has achieved. Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway with his $4 billion purchase of an Israeli company certainly raised Israel's profile. In conjunction with Dubai, the Middle East is now recognized as a financial center."
The companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange include gas refiners Delek and Alon, clothing manufacturer Tefron, mobile phone operator Cellcom, grocery chain Blue Square, geothermal power plant builder Ormat Technologies and software company Amdocs. The wide variety of industries represented here express the diversity of the Israeli economy.
Late last year, the NASDAQ held an Israel Company Day to highlight many of the Israeli companies that trade on its exchange. Since the crowd was standing room only, the NASDAQ has decided to make it an annual event. Israeli stocks like Magal Security, Teva, Checkpoint, Syneron and Perrigo are more than 50% owned by American institutions.
More Israeli companies are also finding their way on to the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The initial public offering of Africa Israel's Russian subsidiary, AFI Development, is the fifth largest real estate company on the LSE. It will probably be added to one of the LSE's indexes this year. Fishman holdings subsidiary, Mirland Development is also in the top 20.
There are 52 Israeli associated companies on the London Exchange. Eleven are on the main exchange and 41 are on the Alternative Market known as AIM. Richard Webster Smith from the London Stock Exchange said: "For the small size of the economy of Israel, Israeli companies are certainly well represented on the London Exchanges."
After the United States, Canada, and Australia, Israel is the fourth largest foreign issuer on the London Exchanges. In 2006, Israel listed 15 companies vs. 26 for the United States. The 15 Israeli companies raised more money in total than the American ones.
Graham Dallas, head of business development for the London Stock Exchange, said: "Israeli companies are embraced by the London institutional community." Some of the big players on the London Exchange are the mutual fund giants Fidelity and AMVESCAP and the insurance company AXA.
Some of the most astute investors on the world's exchanges are clamoring for Israeli companies. There is only one reason for that. Israeli companies make investors money.
http://www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enDispWho=Articles%5El1678&enPage=BlankPage&enDisplay=vi...
Red Herring start-up winners announced
Red Herring chairman Alex Vieux: Israeli companies stand out not just in innovation and intellectual capital but also in their business models and performance capacity.
Gali Weinreb 11 Jun 07 18:30
Unipier Ltd., Safend Ltd., and GI View Ltd. are the winners of the joint "Red Herring" and Israel Venture Association (IVA) most promising start-up awards. The three companies were chosen from the nine finalists in three categories: telecommunications and hardware; software and Internet; and medical device and biotechnology.
The other finalists included Altair Semiconductor Ltd., PowerID Ltd., Red Bend Software Ltd., Drive Diagnostics Ltd., Gamida Cell Ltd., and MGVS - MultiGene Vascular Systems Ltd.
At the award ceremony, IVA conference co-chairman Eli Barkat said, “The main focus of this year’s competition was to locate companies with the biggest chances of becoming large companies. The winning start-ups were chosen on the basis of innovative concept, long-term vision, achievements to date, and the quality of their management.
Red Herring chairman Alex Vieux said, “Israeli companies have again demonstrated that they can compete in the global market. They are prominent not only in innovation and in the development of intellectual capital, but also in their business model and performance. This is a good sign for the next generation of entrepreneurs.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on June 11, 2007
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