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Silently Loud · 17th October 2006, 15:45

UN Report: Quarter of Israel's capital in hands of foreign investors
UNCTAD World Investment Report shows FDI in Israel reached USD 5.6 billion, a record. This year, another record is expected to be broken after Israeli company Iscar Metalworking Cos. acquired by Warren Buffet
Yet Published: 10.17.06, 07:49
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to Israel reached an all-time high in 2005, hitting USD 5.6 billion. Such was reported by the annual World Investment Report published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Israel, according to the report, ranks 23rd in terms of attractiveness for foreign investors, but only in the 63rd slot when it comes to realizing this potential. The report also shows that FDI in the financial sector amounts to 26 percent of all capital in the Israeli market. This is up from 20 percent in 2003.

Drop in acquisitions and mergers
In 2005, the Israeli recovery in the field of mergers and acquisitions abated. According to the report, last year Israeli companies made mergers and acquisitions totaling USD 1.5 billion, up from USD 4 billion in 2004.
Mergers and acquisitions of Israeli companies by foreign companies saw a come-back in 2005 with such deals amounting to USD 2 billion, as opposed to the mere USD 171 million these deals pulled in during 2004. For sake of comparison, the record for acquisitions and mergers was in registered in at USD 4.5 billion in 2000-2001. The world figure of acquisitions and mergers last year is USD 716 billion.
The report was published for the first time in Israel by the EMC Center of the College of Management. In a complementary study performed by the school, it was found that Israel is expected to break a new record in 2006 in FDI and in acquisitions made by Israeli companies. The skyrocketing of foreign investments in 2006 is based first and foremost on Warren Buffet's acquisition of Iscar Metalworking Cos. for USD 4 billion.
The study asserts that statistics from the first nine months of the year show that the total projected investments in Israel for all of 2006 could be 45 percent higher than those in 2005 because the extent of the acquisitions and mergers of Israeli companies is expected to reach USD 5.1 billion, and the extent of acquisitions made by Israeli companies is expected to stand at USD 3.3 billion.