TEL AVIV, May 12 (Reuters) – MA Industries <MAIN.TA>, one of the world’s largest makers of generic crop protection products, said it was looking to Asia as a key growth driver when posting first-quarter results that beat expectations, lifting its stock.

The Israel-based unit of Koor Industries <KOR.TA> posted losses in the third and fourth quarters of 2009 but bounced back in the first three months of this year as sales in Asia-Pacific – especially Australia, India and Thailand — rose 43 percent.

That offset declines in North and South America which were plagued by poor weather. Despite economic problems in Europe, which accounts for half of group sales, MA’s sales there grew 1.3 percent.

Overall, quarterly net profit fell 9 percent to $70.9 million on revenue flat at $723 million. MA was forecast to post a profit of $43 million on $693 million revenue, according to a Reuters poll.

Shares in MA, which is also known as Makhteshim Agan and competes with Monsanto <MON.N>, Bayer <BAYG.DE> and Syngenta <SYNN.VX>, were up 4.9 percent to 16.63 shekels by 0930 GMT.

MA said it was cancelling a planned $150 million rights issue in the wake of the good start to the year.

“It would seem to us that MA has been notably aggressive in its marketing efforts to secure improved volumes. This has been partly at the expense of price but it does appear to have caught the majors napping,” Citi analyst Andrew Benson said in a client note.

JERUSALEM, May 4 (Reuters) – Alvarion Ltd <ALVR.TA> reported a first-quarter net loss and said it would slash its workforce as the maker of WiMax and wireless broadband equipment faces delays in several big projects, sending its shares down 16 percent.

The Israeli-based company said on Tuesday it will reduce expenses by over $30 million annually — mainly through a 20 percent cut in headcount that should be completed in the second quarter.

Analysts said that while deployments for WiMax — a long-range wireless technology — were continuing, spending on WiMax has been slower than expected, while more and more mobile carriers globally were choosing a rival fourth-generation technology called LTE.

“Some projects Alvarion was aiming for didn’t come through,” RBC analyst Daniel Meron told Reuters, citing large deals in the United States and India.

“There are other contracts out there but they are much smaller. And there is heavy competition from Chinese vendors.”

With quarterly results below expectations, Meron lowered his recommendation for Alvarion to “underperform” from “sector perform” and his target price to $3.50 from $5. It was his second rating reduction in four days and his target price has been cut in half.

Alvarion’s <ALVR.O> shares were down 16.4 percent at $3.11 in morning Nasdaq trading.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer said on Sunday Israel could become a leading economy globally if a Middle East peace deal is reached but that the key challenges for now were to accelerate growth and cut poverty.

The Zambian-born, U.S. and British educated Fischer, in a speech after he was sworn in for a second five-year term as central bank chief, said economic success hinged on maintaining a strong military.

“This economy, with its dynamism and creativity, could grow much faster if we were to achieve peace with our neighbours,” said Fischer, 66, who is credited with helping to keep Israel’s economy and financial markets afloat during the global downturn.

“If we were to achieve it, we could within one or two decades find ourselves living in one of the most advanced economies in the world,” he said.

Over the long term, Israel’s economy needs to be as successful as being able to defend itself militarily, he said.

“These two factors — the economic and the military — are intertwined, and their interconnections are very complex,” Fischer said.

Fischer — a former professor of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke — accepted a second term as head of the Bank of Israel in March after parliament approved a bill that makes the central bank’s policymaking more transparent.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer said on Sunday Israel could become a leading economy globally if a Middle East peace deal is reached but that the key challenges for now were to accelerate growth and cut poverty.

The Zambian-born, U.S. and British educated Fischer, in a speech after he was sworn in for a second five-year term as central bank chief, said economic success hinged on maintaining a strong military.

“This economy, with its dynamism and creativity, could grow much faster if we were to achieve peace with our neighbors,” said Fischer, 66, who is credited with helping to keep Israel’s economy and financial markets afloat during the global downturn.

“If we were to achieve it, we could within one or two decades find ourselves living in one of the most advanced economies in the world,” he said.

Over the long term, Israel’s economy needs to be as successful as being able to defend itself militarily, he said.

“These two factors — the economic and the military — are intertwined, and their interconnections are very complex,” Fischer said.

Fischer — a former professor of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke — accepted a second term as head of the Bank of Israel in March after parliament approved a bill that makes the central bank’s policymaking more transparent.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Shares of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries <TEVA.TA> slid nearly 3 percent on Sunday after a jury ruled that Teva infringed on Pfizer Inc’s <PFE.N> Protonix acid reflux drug patent.

Israel-based Teva <TEVA.O> has been selling a generic version of Protonix since 2007. It was considered an at-risk launch, with the original patent on Protonix held by Swiss drugmaker Nycomed <NYCMD.UL> and was licensed to Wyeth, which is now owned by Pfizer.

The announcement came shortly before U.S. markets closed on Friday and Teva’s Nasdaq-listed shares rose 0.8 percent to $61.54. In after-hours trade, Teva shares fell to a low of $60.43 but closed at $61.20.

Shares of Teva, the world’s biggest generic drugmaker, were down 2.9 percent at 225.3 shekels in afternoon trade in Tel Aviv. The broader bourse was up 1.2 percent.

Analysts were surprised at the steep decline in Teva’s shares since Teva plans to appeal and there were still legal issued to be decided by the judge presiding over the case.

“It’s not the final verdict,” said Natali Gotlieb, an analyst at the IBI Investment House. “It’s still too early to know if Teva will have to pay anything.

“Maybe in the end, they will reach a settlement with Pfizer so there are so many scenarios.”

JERUSALEM, April 6 (Reuters) – Israel’s blue-chip Tel Aviv 25 index <.TA25> rose 0.4 percent to close at an all-time high on Tuesday, as strong economic growth continued to buoy the stock market.

In the first full trading day since March 28, the TA-25 index <0#.TA25> closed at 1,237.85 points in moderate volume of 1.6 billion shekels ($432 million) to eclipse a previous high of 1,237.13 set on Oct. 31, 2007. It had risen as high as 1,242.39 early in the session before selling emerged.

The broader TA-100 index <.TA100> edged up 0.2 percent to 1,160.95. Government bond prices <0#ILGOI=TA> closed 0.2 to 0.8 percent lower, while the shekel <ILS=> was mostly flat at 3.7 per dollar.

Israel’s equities market had either been closed or traded in shortened sessions since March 29 due to the seven-day Jewish Passover holiday. Its previous trading session was last Thursday.

After surging some 70 percent in 2009, the Tel Aviv bourse is up another 8 percent so far in 2010 on the heels of a rapidly rebounding economy.

“Israel’s economy only had a two-quarter recession and now we are back to trend growth,” said Saar Golan, a trader at the Clal Finance brokerage. “The general mood in the markets are for continued gains — even if (some) people are calling for a correction.”

The economy contracted in the fourth quarter of 2008 and first quarter of 2009 before posting positive growth starting in the April-June period of last year. Growth was an annualised 4.9 percent in the fourth quarter and the economy is expected to grow at least 3.5 percent in 2010.

JERUSALEM, March 24 (Reuters) – Fertiliser and specialty chemicals maker Israel Chemicals (ICL) <ICL.TA> reported a smaller than expected 15 percent rise in quarterly net profit and said it saw signs of recovery in potash demand.

The world’s sixth largest maker of potash, which is used to boost crop yields, said: “Signs of further recovery have been evident during the first quarter of 2010, including the signing in March of potash supply agreements totalling 1.43 million tonnes with Indian customers.”

Major fertilizer majors had a dismal 2009 but the outlook is improving as the sector looks to the typically strong spring season.

The sector has also witnessed a frenzied round of consolidation, which has seen CF Industries Holdings Inc <CF.N> buy rival Terra Industries Inc <TRA.N> for more than $4.6 billion after Norwegian rival Yara International ASA <YAR.OL> decided not to raise its offer for Terra.

Shares in ICL closed down 0.9 pct at 50.30 shekels after hitting an all time high of 50.74 on Tuesday. The stock has underperformed that of its rivals, which have gained on takeover hopes, as it not regarded as a likely target.

“Recent positive news on ICL’s Indian contracts and a solid outlook for 2010 may help reverse some of this recent underperformance,” Citi analyst Sophie Jourdier wrote in a client note.

ICL posted net profit of $202.7 million, compared with $175.8 million a year earlier. Excluding one-off charges, ICL recorded profit of $279.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2008.

TEL AVIV, March 16 (Reuters) – Bezeq Israel Telecom <BEZQ.TA> said on Tuesday it did not expect to lose foreign investors in May after Israel’s equity market moves to developed market status from an emerging markets.

Chief Financial Officer Alan Gelman said Bezeq, Israel’s largest telecoms group, has boosted its foreign investor base to 43 percent from 17 percent a year ago.

“It’s hard to say we will do much better than 43 percent,” Gelman said at a conference that unveiled a Thomson Reuters Extel survey showing most foreign investors unlikely to increase their Israeli exposure after the switch. [ID:nLDE62F0ZF]

He said Bezeq could even gain “a couple of percentage points”.

Gelman said it will be a tough road for Israeli companies to attract developed market investors, partly due to the fact they will have to compete on valuations with larger peers.

He added that developed market investors and funds use different criteria to judge companies.

As for Bezeq, Gelman said that in anticipation of the MSCI upgrade, the company has raised its free float to 70 percent.

JERUSALEM, March 15 (Reuters) – Brazil expects a new free trade agreement with Israel to swell bilateral trade to more than $3 billion within five years, officials said on Monday.

Trade between Israel and Brazil slipped below $1 billion in 2009 from a peak of $1.6 billion in 2008 — $1.2 billion of which were Israeli exports — due to the global economic crisis.

But a new free trade agreement between Israel and the Mercosur bloc — Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay — goes into effect in early April. Israel is the first non-Latin American country to sign such a trade deal with Mercosur.

Brazil gave its final approval to the pact on March 4, a week after Paraguay.

“We will triple trade between Israel and Brazil by 2015,” Paulo Skaf, president of the Federation of Industries of the State of Sao Paulo, said at a conference in Jerusalem attended by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Israeli President Shimon Peres and a group of Israeli and Brazilian business leaders.

Brazil is Israel’s largest trading partner in Latin America, with a number of large Israeli companies already exporting to Brazil.

Defence contractor Elbit Systems <ESLT.O> is a supplier to Embraer <EMBR3.SA> <ERJ.N>, the world’s third-largest aircraft manufacturer, while fertiliser maker Israel Chemicals <ICL.TA> and generic agrochemical company MA Industries <MAIN.TA> have significant exports.

JERUSALEM, March 10 (Reuters) – Israel’s parliamentary finance committee on Wednesday approved a controversial bill that would revamp the framework for policymaking at the Bank of Israel.

Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer, whose five-year term ends at the end of April, has hinged staying on for a second term on passage of the bill.

Moshe Gafni, the head of the committee, said in a statement: “We approved the new Bank of Israel Law after 50 years and there is no doubt it is historic.”

Fischer welcomed the decision.

“This is a good law that will let the bank continue its work efficiently, transparent to the public, the parliament and the government,” Fischer said.

Final approval is still needed by parliament.

Under the proposed bill, monetary policy decisions would be made by a six-member board headed by the governor.