JERUSALEM, March 2 (Reuters) – Cellcom Israel <CEL.N> <CEL.TA>, Israel’s largest mobile phone operator, reported higher quarterly profit on Tuesday that beat estimates, but said intensifying competition looks set to limit growth in 2010.

Like its rivals, Cellcom overcame a difficult economic environment and posted a 4 percent rise in revenue, despite a decline in airtime revenue stemming from ongoing price erosion.

Its shares fell 1.6 percent to 128.90 shekels in a rising market as analysts called the results uninspiring, and said further growth in 2010 would be challenging.

“Given the risk of competition, we believe the stock is fully priced,” said Gilad Alper, an analyst at the Excellence Nessuah brokerage. He maintained a “market perform” rating and 120 shekel price target.

Analysts cited already fierce competition from Partner Communications <PTNR.TA> and Pelephone, Israel’s second and third largest mobile operators, and the possible addition of virtual operators later this year.

“Cellcom presented only a reasonable report that clearly presented its problem — it doesn’t have new engines of growth,” said Ori Licht, an analyst at IBI Investment House, noting that Cellcom’s results were weaker than those of Partner <PTNR.O>.

With Israel’s mobile phone penetration above 100 percent, Cellcom and Partner began offering domestic calling via Voice over Broadband, but revenue has been low so far.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Bank of Israel governor Stanley Fischer flew to China on Wednesday to urge Beijing to back tough sanctions against Iran over its suspected nuclear weapons project.

Fischer, known to China from his time as a senior official of the IMF and World Bank, was accompanied by Israel’s minister for strategic affairs, Moshe Yaalon, and representatives of Israel’s National Security Council, Yaalon’s spokesman said.

“They will discuss issues of common interest with the Chinese. This includes the Iranian issue, which is important for the Chinese as well as Israel,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week called for an immediate embargo on Iran’s energy sector.

Of the five members of the United Nations Security Council with veto power, China is most resistant to employing global sanctions to force Tehran to abandon its alleged atom-bomb plans, saying diplomacy can resolve the issue.

Beijing sees Iran as an important oil supplier and trade partner and a major strategic actor in the Middle East, where China, the world’s No. 2 crude oil consumer, is buying growing volumes of oil.

Iran has the world’s second-largest crude oil reserves, but desperately needs investment to develop them. It denies working to develop a nuclear warhead but insists on its right to create nuclear power-generating capacity.

JERUSALEM, Feb 15 (Reuters) – Bank Leumi <LUMI.TA> Chief Executive Officer Galia Maor has ended a stand-off with the government and regulators over her bid to become chairwoman of Israel’s biggest bank by withdrawing her candidacy.

Her backers argued she had “special talents” which should exempt her from a rule requiring a two-year cooling-off period between being a bank executive and serving as a director.

Israel’s finance and justice ministers, the securities watchdog and the attorney general said she must abide by the regulations.

Leumi said Maor, who has been CEO for 15 years, would stay in her post.

“Mrs. Maor informed the bank today that in light of the circumstances created since presenting her candidancy as a director of the bank … she came to a personal decision to withdraw her candidancy to serve as bank director,” Leumi said in a statement to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange on Monday.

Leumi’s appointments committee in late January recommended making Maor a director, which would have made her a strong contender to become chairwoman.

“Leumi is my home,” Maor wrote in a blog on Leumi’s website.

JERUSALEM, Feb 9 (Reuters) – Partner Communications <PTNR.TA>, Israel’s second-largest mobile phone operator, said it expected improved profitability in 2010 as the economy recovers, after posting a rise in fourth-quarter net profit.

After a large decline in net income in the third quarter, Partner — which operates under the Orange brand name – rebounded in the final three months of the 2009, helped by an increase in revenue and cost-cutting measures.

Partner Chief Executive David Avner said on Tuesday that although the company had just started offering fixed-line and Internet services, the main engine of growth continued to be its mobile business and an increase in mobile phone usage.

“That trend (of rising minutes for mobile phones) slowed a bit in 2009 due to the economic crisis but we believe that might change to the positive in 2010,” Avner told Reuters, adding continued economic recovery would help Partner.

In October, Scailex Corp <SCIX.TA> bought a 51.2 percent stake in Partner <PTNR.TA> for 5.3 billion shekels from Hutchison Telecommunications <2332.HK>. Scailex now holds about 45 percent after selling off some small stakes.

With Israel’s mobile phone penetration well above 100 percent, Partner began offering domestic calling via Voice over Broadband.

Market leader Bezeq Israel Telecom <BEZQ.TA> has seen its landline share fall below 80 percent from 100 percent in the past few years due to competition from other telecoms companies.

TEL AVIV (Reuters) – Better Place said on Sunday it expects at least 45,000 electric cars on Israeli roads in the next five years, starting in 2011.

The company, which is building a network of charging stations for electric cars in Israel, Denmark and Australia, said it had signed up 92 corporate fleet owners in Israel to rotate in electric vehicles when leases expire in coming years.

“That’s one-third of the fleet and half the fleet cars,” Shai Agassi, Better Place’s founder and chief executive, told Reuters after an event to open a center in Israel to showcase the prototype cars and its electric technology.

He noted that the top 280 fleets in Israel comprise some 100,000 cars.

“By 2020 there will be more electric cars sold per year than gas cars,” Agassi said.

Sales of the Renault-Nissan-made electric cars — which will be manufactured in Turkey — will be available in Israel next year following tests later in 2010. Sales will be limited to 1,000 cars per month.

“We believe this has real potential,” said Nicholas Remise, a manager for Renault’s electric car program, adding that past failures were due to a lack of infrastructure.

TEL AVIV, Feb 7 (Reuters) – At least 45,000 electric cars will be running on Israeli roads within five years, according to a company called Better Place which is building networks of charging stations in Israel, Denmark and Australia.

Better Place said on Sunday it had signed up 92 corporate fleet owners in Israel to rotate in electric vehicles when leases expire in coming years. Cars will start running under the programme in Israel in 2011.

“That’s one-third of the fleet and half the fleet cars,” Shai Agassi, Better Place’s founder and chief executive, told Reuters after an event to open a centre in Israel to showcase the prototype cars and its electric technology.

Better Place’s concept is for battery-swapping stations to complement a network of charge spots so electric cars can extend their range without the need of an additional back-up engine that burns fossil fuel.

Agassi noted that the top 280 fleets in Israel comprise some 100,000 cars. “By 2020 there will be more electric cars sold per year than gas (petrol) cars,” he said.

The Renault/Nissan-made <RENA.PA> <7201.T> electric cars – which will be manufactured in Turkey — will be available in Israel next year following tests later in 2010. Sales will be limited to 1,000 cars per month.

“We believe this has real potential,” said Nicholas Remise, a manager for Renault’s electric car programme, adding that past failures of electric cars to find market success were due to a lack of infrastructure.

HERZILIYA, Israel (Reuters) – International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Sunday urged the United States, Britain and other countries to cooperate on new policies and regulations in the wake of the financial crisis.

He told the annual Herziliya Conference that at the onset of the crisis, world leaders were “scared” and agreed to work together to end the crisis. But now, countries are formulating policies on their own.

“That doesn’t work. The lesson of co-operation is still necessary,” Strauss-Kahn said, citing U.S. President Barack Obama’s plans to curb activities at major banks, particularly betting in financial markets with their own money.

“It is absolutely impossible to get out of the crisis without global solutions,” he said. “I am not sure that’s the route on which we are.”

He also said Britain was also committed to pressing ahead with financial regulations.

The global economic recovery is recovering faster than expected, leading the IMF to revise its growth estimates higher. But growth is being led by Asia and emerging markets, Strauss-Kahn said, noting that growth in West was being fueled largely by public spending, .

“Until private demand is strong, it is difficult to talk about a real strong recovery,” he said.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel must significantly curb growth in electricity usage or the country will ultimately face higher financial and health costs from its mostly coal-based generation, a RAND Corporation analyst said.

Steven Popper, an economist at the U.S. non-profit group, said RAND has been analyzing Israel’s energy sector for a few years as part of a privately funded study.

“There is a quiet energy crisis in Israel in delivering electricity,” Popper said in an interview with Reuters while in Israel to deliver the final report to government officials.

“Unless Israel gets control of growth of demand for electricity, it will pay heavy penalties — financial penalties and air quality penalties,” he said.

He noted that growth in Israel’s electricity demand has been as much as 6 percent a year on average for more than a decade. That has pushed demand very close to total generating capacity of 11 gigawatts during peak periods and brownouts have occurred.

Ideally, there should be a reserve of 20 percent, Popper said.

“They are pushing so close to the red line that if any one of Israel’s five, six power plants went out, you would have a tremendous mess,” he said. “The problem is that the ability to generate electricity has not kept up with demand.”

JERUSALEM, Dec 8 (Reuters) – Revenues at Google Inc’s <GOOG.O> online video site YouTube are continuing to rise despite the poor global economy, YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley said on Tuesday.

“I can’t comment on numbers but we had two spectacular quarters,” Hurley told a news conference in Jerusalem marking the launch of Israeli President Shimon Peres’s new YouTube channel.

“The economy is having some rough times but our costs continue to go down and our revenues continue to go up. It’s a good combination for success” he said. “We are going to build on that.”

Hurley said YouTube continues to grow in terms of traffic, reaching more than 1 billion views a day, while receiving nearly 24 hours of video every minute.

“We are not satisfied,” he said. “We continue to feel we can build a better product — better ways for partners to earn money on our site and generate revenues and better ways that advertisers can get in front of a global audience in more targeted and relevant ways.” Hurley declined to elaborate.

In July, Google said the company was monetising — showing videos supported by advertising — more than 1 billion video views a week. It said at the time that YouTube was on track to become profitable in the “not too distant future”. [ID: nN16253]

Peres, a former prime minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner, said he opted for a YouTube channel to spread his vision of peace around the world.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Markstone Capital, whose former chairman pled guilty to bribing New York State officials, does not anticipate any investors backing out from its investment funds, its new chairman said on Sunday.

“We haven’t had any indications that (investors pulling out) will happen, and we don’t expect them to either,” Dan Gillerman, former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, told Reuters by phone from London.

Gillerman was swiftly named chairman of Markstone — an $800 million U.S.-Israeli investment fund — after former chairman Elliot Broidy last Thursday pled guilty to a felony charge of bribing four senior officials who managed New York State’s pension fund.

After Broidy pled guilty to paying $1 million in gifts to four New York State officials in exchange for investing $250 million in Markstone, he resigned as chairman.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Markstone was still being investigated. However, Gillerman said the company was not being investigated.

Gillerman, who was head of Israel’s chamber of commerce prior to his stint as ambassador, called the Broidy incident a “tragedy” and “unfortunate” but said Markstone would survive.

“I don’t see any connection between a very isolated incident which happened thousands of miles away (from Israel) and Markstone’s market performance,” he said.