A decade after Samy Katsav acquired the small arms business of Israel Military Industries Ltd. (IMI), his company Israel Weapons Industries Ltd. (IWI), has renewed its lease to continue production at IMI's site in Ramat Hasharon until 2019.
When Katsav acquired IMI's light arms division through his company, SK Group, in 2004, the parties agreed that IWI would continue production at IMI's site in Ramat Hasharon for five years. IWI uses 30 dunam (7.5 acres) of IMI's 6,000 dunam (1,500-acre) site. The lease was renewed for five more years through 2015.
Sources inform ''Globes'' that Katsav and IMI have agreed to renew IWI's lease for a third time, allowing the company to continue production at the site through 2019. Meanwhile, IWI will initiate procedures for building a new plant at a 36-dunam (nine-acre) site in Yavne.
IMI is due to vacate its Ramat Hasharon site in 2020 under the plan it has drawn up in recent years as part of the talks on its privatization. The land is contaminated from decades of industrial activity, but it still has very high real estate value. The site will reportedly be returned to the Israel Land Administration after IMI moves to the Negev, and the land will be decontaminated for the construction of thousands of housing units.
A top land official today criticized the renewal of IWI's lease with IMI, saying that it was not coordinated with, or approved by, the landowner - Israel Land Administration. The source said that the lease may delay decontamination of the site and development of the land.
IMI confirmed to "Globes" that IWI's lease had been renewed, saying that, in any case, it should not be an obstacle to the return of the site when IMI's privatization is completed and the company moves to the Negev. "The lease between IMI and IWI, which expires in 2015, was extended to 2019, and is subject to IWI's commitment to vacate the site at the same time that IMI moves to the Negev. The target date for completing the process is 2020," said IMI.
IWI could not estimate the timetable for completing the planning and building of its new plant in Yavne. It said that the planning process began a year ago, and that, for now, there was no choice but to continue production in the same way as in the past decade.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 5, 2013
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