Discount Investment Corporation had no exits to report in the last quarter of 2007, for which it yesterday reported netting NIS 61 million. For the year, though, the IDB group company posted doubled net profit of NIS 1.54 billion, most of which came from NIS 761 million profit on selling Cellcom shares and NIS 507 million from selling Super-Sol shares. Cellcom is also responsible for most of Discount Investment's profit from operations, contributing NIS 524 million last year. (Nathan Sheva)
Eliezer Fishman's company Jerusalem Economic Corporation says it's negotiating to buy assets in the French city of Nantes for 17.3 million euro. The assets, amounting to some 15,244 square meters, are set on 80 dunams of land. The seller, an industrial concern, would lease the properties for 12 years, with no exit option, and pay 1.52 million euro a year for the deal. (TheMarker)
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Dun & Bradstreet has crowned Baran Israel's strongest civil engineering company, with annual revenues of NIS 1.5 billion. It has 1,450 employees. Incidentally, the number of professional workers engaged in engineering rose by 10% last year. Tahal moved from third to second place, with 560 professional workers. Ludan dropped from third to second place with 550 employees and estimated revenues of NIS 339 million last year. (Arik Mirovsky)
Clal Insurance, a subsidiary of Nochi Dankner's IDB group, admitted to a 17.5% slump in yearly profit, but one-time income items pushed up reported profit to NIS 886 million. Nonrecurring profits included NIS 458 million from canceling provisions for special risks, which the regulator allowed all Israeli insurers to do. Fourth-quarter profit halved to NIS 91.7 million. Clal Insurance leader Avigdor Kaplan remained the best-remunerated insurance official in the land, with a wage cost of NIS 10.7 million last year, including on stock options and bonuses. (Eti Aflalo)
Alony Hetz had to write off NIS 186 million from investment in subsidiaries, which lowered its fourth-quarter net profit by 68% against the parallel quarter to NIS 40.6 million. The company's stock is now 54% shy of its peak, reached less than a year ago. Alony Hetz wrote off NIS 166 million on its investment in the Italian real estate company Pirelli alone, and NIS 20 million on Trio, a London firm that buys mortgage portfolios and portfolios of mortgage-backed securities. For the year 2007 Alony Hetz revenues rose by 19% against 2006 to a billion shekels, but high costs and write-offs lowered net profit by 11% to NIS 366.5 million. (Tal Levy)
Merrill Lynch last week released an update on Oil Refineries, which had fallen short of forecasts for adjusted operating profit in the fourth quarter of 2007, but had beat the parallel by 32%. The refining dividend ran costs higher than expected, wrote analyst Haim Israel, but conversely, the petrochemical divisions passed on costs more than expected. Quarterly net profit of NIS 142 million was just 4% shy of the Merrill forecast. Bottom line: a Neutral recommendation. (TheMarker)
Also late last week, Merrill Lynch issued a Buy rating for Israel Chemicals, noting this year India hasn't waited for China to sign agreements with potash producers. Delhi went ahead and shook hands with URKA at $625 per ton, more than double the price signed in the last 6-month pact. The contract will apply from May 2008 to March 2009, and Merrill believes India's move to preempt China signals Indian expectations of a potash shortage. In short Merrill sees a major increase in the price China will pay. The bank anticipates that ICL will sign an Indian agreement too soon and raises its revenues forecasts for the Israeli firm. (TheMarker)
Granite Hacarmel company Tambour yesterday announced the purchase of a production plant to make plaster boards, furthering its ambition to expand in the production of building materials. Its investment in the plant will run to NIS 100 million, Tambour estimates. (Ora Coren)
Excellence and Pia were forced to sit on the sidelines yesterday morning because a power-outage paralyzed their systems. Both brokerages are located in Ramat Gan's Aviv Towers. Their phone systems also shut down after two central Israel Electric Corp. fuses burned out. (Tal Levy)
Real estate company Bonei Hatichon sold 317 housing units during 2007 for NIS 327 million, it reported yesterday. It netted NIS 23.3 million for the year compared with just NIS 5.4 million the year before. Revenues increased by 80% year over year to NIS 240 million in 2007, according to Bonei Hatichon. One reason for its improved fortunes is that housing prices rose in 2007, the company explains. (Guy Liberman)
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