Czech signing for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system

Israel Aerospace Industries has announced a deal with the Czech Republic that will see the radar detection systems of the Iron Dome batteries installed in central Europe.

The agreement, worth an estimated £95 million, is part of the Czech Mobile Air Defence Radar programme and comprises eight Multi-Mission Radars with air surveillance, air defence and artillery capabilities.

The system is expected to be delivered, tested, licensed and provided in operational condition by 2023, and will be adapted to comply with both Czech and Nato command and control requirements.

Defence Ministry officials say this deal will “deepen and strengthen the cooperation and relations with between Israel and the Czech Republic.”

El Al announces plans to go down under

El Al has announced its schedule and fares for its trial non-stop flights between Tel Aviv and Australia.

The Israeli flag carrier is to operate three trial flights to Melbourne, taking about 18 hours, making it around three hours longer than its route to Los Angeles, currently the longest it operates.

The trial flights to Melbourne will test how well passengers and crew are able to endure the challenge of experiencing such a long flight, and the viability of operating the route from a business point of view.

The airline is expected to charge from £910 for return fares for the trial service, including airport taxes, luggage and seating.

If the flights to Melbourne become a part of El Al’s regular schedule, the fares will likely be much higher.

Historic Jerusalem hotel set to change hands

The booming hotel sector and year-on-year records for tourism in Israel has encouraged real estate developer Azrieli Group to further expand its hospitality business by buying out the Mount Zion Hotel building in Jerusalem at a cost of £60 million.

The Mount Zion Hotel, in West Jerusalem on the outskirts of the Old City, is a historic building constructed as a hospital in 1882.

Intel swoops in for another mammoth deal

Following its £11.7 billion acquisition of Mobileye in 2017, Intel has completed a second mammoth acquisition of an Israeli start-up.

Artificial intelligence chipmaker Habana Labs was snapped up for approximately £1.5 billion, believed to be part of  Intel’s desire to strengthen its fast-growing data-centre business in light of stagnating sales of personal computers.

Habana, was founded in 2016, and has offices in Tel Aviv, as well as in Beijing,  San Jose and Gdansk.

Habana is expected to remain as an independent business unit and the current Israel-based management team will stay in place. 

Israeli house prices are still on the up

After several years of slowing rises in Israeli property prices, in part as a result of Government schemes to make home-ownership more affordable, Israeli rating agency Midroog has forecast a gathering of momentum in price increases for 2020, not least because of consistently low interest rates in the Israeli market.

With a rising population outpacing development of new housing, this trend will be unsurprising to most Israelis.

IzBiz is compiled every fortnight for the JC by Jeremy Seeff, partner at ERM, a cross-border law firm based in Tel Aviv for corporate, finance and real estate matters. Read previous editions of IzBiz here.