Elbit Medical Imaging Ltd. (Nasdaq: EMITF; TASE: EMIT), controlled by chairman Mordechai Zisser, has won an Israel Land Administration (ILA) tender for a lot in Tiberias on the shore of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee).
Elbit Medical was the only bidder in the tender, and offered three times the minimum price, paying NIS 10.2 million, plus NIS 19 million in development costs, for the 11.5-acre lot. The company plans to build a 650-room 4 or 5-star hotel at an investment of NIS 290 million. Half the rooms will be holiday apartments.
The ILA has struggled to market land in Tiberias and along the Kinneret for years, and most land tenders have failed. Bids have been placed in only half the tenders, and mostly close to the minimum price. The ILA has not issued tenders for land for hotels in the area since 1998, when no bids were placed in five tenders, despite the projected tourist boom associated with the visit by Pope John Paul II in 2000.
In a separate development, Elbit Medical subsidiary Plaza Centers NV (LSE:PLAZ), which develops property in Central and Eastern Europe and in India will hold a NIS 305 million (€53.3 million) bond issue for Israeli institutional investors. Maalot The Israel Rating Company Ltd. has rated the non-convertible bonds A+/Positive. The bonds will paid in eight eight equal annual installments in 2010-17, and bear 4.5% interest to be paid in semi-annual installments.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on July 9, 2007
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