Israel Military Industries (IMI) will be sold as a single unit in a private sale, via tender, to an investor, or a consortium of Israeli and foreign investors. Government corporations, including Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) and RAFAEL Armament Development Authority, will be permitted neither to bid in the tender, nor to be partners in competing consortia.
The decision was taken in recent days, following a dispute of many months between the Ministries of Finance and Defense, and within the Ministry of Defense itself. IMI has been undergoing a prolonged crisis.
Ministry of Defense director-general Amos Yaron and Government Companies Authority director Eyal Gabbai have already formulated the decision, which will be submitted by Minister of Finance Benjamin Netanyahu to the ministerial privatization committee.
The Ministry of Defense will undertake to buy a stipulated quantity of products from IMI, or to support it in other ways, in order to guarantee IMI’s economic viability in a number of fields to be defined as essential to Israel.
The state will recompense IMI workers, as is usual in privatization, immediately after the sale, subject to the workers’ cooperation in the sale process.
According to the draft tender formulation, Ministry of Finance deputy budget director Kobi Haber, Ministry of Finance Accountant General Dr. Yaron Zalika, and Israel Land Administration director general Yaacov Efrati will undertake to arrange the status of land currently held by IMI. An agreement will be signed with the concern acquiring IMI to indemnify the state for environmental nuisances created after the sale.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on September 9, 2004