Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) (TASE: ARSP.B1) is planning to raise up to $800 million in a TASE IPO, Government Companies Authority director general Ori Yogev has told "Bloomberg." He said that the offering of 20-25% of IAI's shares at a company value of $3.2 billion will take place in 2017, after the completion of the recently announced streamlining process, which will see the company shed 730 jobs.
The planned IPO would be the largest on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange since Oil Refineries Ltd. (TASE:ORL) sold $1.5 billion of shares 10 years ago, Bloomberg observes. IAI's bonds are already listed on the TASE.
Such an offering would also kick-start the government’s stalled privatization program. In 2014, the government approved a plan to sell about $4 billion of minority stakes in state-owned companies such as Israel Natural Gas Lines Company Ltd. and the ports in Ashdod and Haifa. The sale of Israel Military Industries Ltd. (IMI) has also become bogged down in bureaucracy.
IAI declined to comment on the report.
IAI reported revenue of $877 million in the second quarter of 2016, down 5.5% from $928 million in the corresponding quarter of 2015. Net profit in the second quarter was $6 million down from $20 million in the second quarter of 2015.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 4, 2016
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2016