MTS today won the Tel Aviv light railway tender, the largest tender in Israeli history, with a bid of NIS 7.15 billion.
MTS is a consortium of Africa-Israel Investments Ltd. (TASE:AFIL; Pink Sheets:AFIVY), controlled by chairman Lev Leviev; Egged Israel Transport Cooperative Society Ltd.; Siemens (NYSE: SI; XETRA: SIE); China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, and Sociedade de Construcoes Soares da Costa SA of Portugal. The consortium beat the Metro Rail consortium of Arison Holdings Ltd. subsidiary Housing and Construction Holding Co. Ltd. (Shikun u'Binui) (TASE: HUCN), Ashtrom Properties Ltd. (TASE:ASPR), Alstom (Euronext: ALO; LSE:ALS), Connex-GEA of France, VINCI, and Zublin AG.
Metro Rail will probably file an appeal against the decision with the courts in a few days to prevent the contract and void MTS’s win.
MTS and the state are scheduled to sign a contract within 60 days, after which the consortium will seek and close financing.
NTA Metropolitan Mass Transit System chairman Benjamin Vaknin and Accountant General Dr. Yaron Zalika predict that MTS will close a financing deal within a year, but other sources predict that two years will be necessary.
Sources predict that the Red Line from Petah Tikva through Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv and Jaffa will begin operating in 2014 at the earliest.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on December 31, 2006
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