8 / 120
/8/
the major banks of Israel will be forced to sell their profitable credit card operations,
and the path will be made easier for new banks to enter the marketplace.
The saga of Israel’s offshore gas monopoly is hopefully coming to an end. Prime
Minister Netanyahu personally intervened and pushed through the “Gas Outline
Agreement” with the consortia that own the major offshore gas discoveries, the
Tamar and Leviathan fields (Noble Energy, the Delek Group and the Ratio Group).
The Agreement will bring to an end the current monopoly by forcing the consortium
members to sell part of their interests in the two fields, as well as settling issues
relating to the export of gas from Israel and the terms on which the gas companies will
sell their gas. It is inevitable that there will be significant investment activity relating to
the offshore gas fields. Time will tell whether the investment will be from overseas or
from local investors, and in particular institutional investors.
A third issue still facing the Minister of Finance is to deal with the critical housing
situation in Israel, especially for first-time buyers and lower income groups. Any
solution to this problem will involve simplifying Israel’s planning regulations, and the
release by the Government of at least a portion of the large reserves of real estate
held by the State.
While these challenges are being tackled head on, and despite the geopolitical
environment, there are verymany reasons for optimism for doing business in Israel. The
country is at the heart of technological innovation and continues to offer international
businesses attractive investment opportunities across a range of cutting-edge
industries.
We are witnessing the expansion of smaller domestic technology companies
growing through their own local acquisitions in Israel.