October 30, 2009

Compliments of Angloraanana

· Yitschak Tshuva’s Delek Group which originally planned to raise only NIS 300 million [Only? Sounds like enough to us. But no!], when along came Midroog, a finance house, and gave the bonds an A1 rating with a “Stable” outlook and that, amongst other factors, gave rise to a strong demand and in response the Company boosted the offering to NIS 800 million, the maximum amount that was rated. The Group has already raised NIS 650 million in two bond series earlier this year.

· The firm of Andy Ram et Yoni Erlich, Tennis Inc. is back in business after a long lay off due to the latter’s injury. And a really triumphant return it was to the ATP Tour. All happening on Wednesday when they defeated top-seeds Michal Mertinak and Frantisek Cermak 6-3, 7-6 (7) to advance to the quarterfinals of the St. Petersburg Open. The Israelis, who last teamed-up on tour in the US Open in August 2008, will next face the Russian duo of Igor Andreev and Mikhail Youzhny. Still on the tennis court and Israel’s top lady has just been granted a visa to compete in Bali. She will be the first Israeli to play in Indonesia. So Dubai is just a bad memory, best forgotten.

· A third of the apartments purchased during the second quarter of 2009 were for investment, according to a Ministry of Finance report. This is a record proportion for a trend that began in 2002, when 22% of apartments were bought for investment. The report attributes the growth in apartments for investment, to the tax reform enacted in 2003 and the economic crisis that began in mid-2007, which led to the slashing of interest rates to virtually zero, as well as the plunge in stock markets, prompting a land rush by investors. Looks like this is the way the wise money should be going.

· Fifteen high school students are currently undergoing strict training in a course designed to groom Israel’s first “team of geniuses”. The tenth and eleventh graders were chosen by the Education Ministry to participate in the program, in which highly respected scientists are personally paired with and train each of them to become future leaders in many of the scientific fields. Every member of the team possesses an IQ of 155 or higher – was a time when IQ tests only measured up to 145 -.Training future Nobel Prize laureates is a great idea and when the time comes for them to be drafted, the Army will pitch in and help and encourage them along the way. But what if they don’t quite make the Nobel; well they’ll still be members of Israel’s elite and make their contribution accordingly.

· Fabless chipmaker Altair Semiconductor Ltd., which develops advanced mobile semiconductors for handheld devices, today announced its mobile WiMAX processor has been integrated into MiTAC’s Mio branded Mobile Internet Navigation Device (MIND, which is as a cute an acronym as we’ve seen in the past little while). The device, called MiBuddy, also nice, was unveiled today at the WiMAX Forum’s Broadband Taiwan 2009 event in Taipei. MiTAC develops and produces navigation devices and IT solutions for users around the world. And now for the bottom line - the deal is worth millions of dollars to the Israeli company.

· Israel’s national Paralympics swim team returned to Israel this week from Europe with five medals in hand. Inbal Schwartz made a splash by setting a European record in taking the 50-meter butterfly gold at the IPC European Swimming Championship last week. Itzhak Mamistvalov, he of the captivating, ever-present smile, won two gold medals, including one in the men’s 200-meter freestyle, as well as a bronze. Three-time Beijing silver-medal winner Inbal Pezaro took gold in the 200-meter freestyle. Iyad Shalati finished fourth twice, missing out on a bronze in the backstroke by 16/100ths of a second. Medals or not, are these guys winners or what!

· Amdocs Ltd., certainly one of the biggest billing software solutions producers in the world and probably the biggest with its Head Office right here in Ra’anana, Israel, has reached into its $1.3bn cash stockpile and bought privately-held, jNetX for $50 million. jNetX is a US service delivery platform (SDP) provider [now, we’re not quite sure of what that is but look it up on the Internet, the truth is out there!] with offices in Dallas, London, Moscow, Bangkok and Marseilles. In addition to product synergies, Amdocs and jNetX share a number of top tier customers, including Vodafone Group, British Telecom and Mobilkom.

· 20 ladies from the haredi (ultra-orthodox) community will train as software engineers, chosen from 100 applicants who applied for the three-month course. Apparently demand has soared, requiring the company to hire a large number of personnel. The firm that will ultimately employ the graduates provides an environment conducive to their job satisfaction – many of them for instance are nursing mothers – and the employer in its turn gets a skilled, focused and dedicated work-force.

· A breakdown [let’s rephrase that], an analysis [Ah, that’s much better] of exports by regions showed a healthy increase in exports to North America in Q3, compared with the second quarter, and that followed a 22% increase in exports in the second quarter compared to Q1. Exports to Asia rose by 18%, and total exports in Q3 rose to $8.9 billion. It won’t be long before we surpass the pre-crash days of 2008.

· Could it be a sign of the warming up of relations or is it simply a case of Israel’s being so prominent in the field that a get-together of this kind would be unthinkable without them? Whichever, the Israeli flag was displayed on the table and on the pins of the country’s delegates to the first International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) conference in Abu Dhabi a couple of weeks ago. The Israeli delegation took full part and was received graciously and without a hitch. It was the first time an Israeli flag has been flown in the United Arab Emirates, since Israel has no official diplomatic relations with the country. Indonesia [see item on tennis above] and the UAE, things are looking up.

· Israel is in first place in the world in investment in civilian R&D as a percentage of GDP. Just so as we get the facts straight; Israel’s investment in civilian R&D was 4.5% of GDP, compared with the European average of 3%. We also have the largest number of startups per capita worldwide and if that weren’t enough for a country of just seven million people Israel is also a leader in science and technological personnel, with 140 engineers per 10,000 residents, thanks in large part to the contribution made by Russian immigrants. But there is no sitting on laurels already acquired, in this game and there are those in the know who say that all the above is not enough, and it is necessary to increase the rate of investment in technology and our very rich human resources, because our fate as a country depends on it and we, for what it’s worth, tend to agree.