 |
|
 |
|
 |
In its first 50 years, Israel was known for its military prowess. Now, many of the country’s former soldiers are applying their innovative powers and ingenuity to the technology wars, being waged in New York, Texas, Massachusetts and Silicon Valley.
Few countries can match Israel’s ability to generate high-tech ideas, and exploit them commercially. Israel has more companies listed on U.S. exchanges than any other foreign country except Canada. Israeli innovations – in telecom, communications, the Internet, software for dozens of fields, medical equipment, and bio- and agro-technology – are finding wide application in global markets.
Moreover, the drive by Israelis to get the Next Big Idea to market has been accompanied by economic improvement on the home front. Inflation is low, the government has been selling state enterprises, financial markets have been deregulated, and virtually all foreign-exchange restrictions have been lifted. And progress in the peace process promises to help the entire Mediterranean region realize its potential.
In our cover article, Israel on Wall Street, Shlomo Greenberg notes that Israeli stocks have developed broad appeal for international investors, and that their yields have been quite good. The reasons: excellent technology, and management that, while young, is learning quickly how to build companies – and shareholder value.
But it is not only international investors who have been putting money into established Israeli enterprises. The High-Tech Orchestra by Shoshanna Solomon explores the way in which the country’s high-tech boom has attracted record investments by venture capitalists from Israel and abroad.
And in Big Fish in a Small Pond, Ms. Solomon also takes a focused look at inter-national banking, which has found Israel an attractive place to set up shop. It’s easy to see why: The country’s strong macroeconomics, and the abolition of nearly all foreign-exchange controls have led to a gradual improvement in its international credit rating.
On the high-tech highway, powerhouse deals like Lucent’s $4.5 billion acquisition of Chromatis gave a fresh boost to the hopes of Israeli investors and technologists. The country’s fledgling companies must face a serious shortage of skilled labor, an unfriendly tax regime, and a government that moves too slowly for Silicon Valley tastes. But improvements are being implemented. Just before we went to press, Israeli regulators and lawmakers completed a long process that will enable Israeli companies traded on Wall Street to dual-list their shares on the TASE, with minimum paperwork and bureaucracy. This creates a new arena for the shares of Israeli companies traded in New York, and exposure to new communities of investors.
Israel on Wall Street offers you, our readers, thought-provoking insights into the subjects that drive and challenge Israel’s entrepreneurs and veteran executives. In this and future issues, we shall introduce you to innovative companies at every stage of their development – from seed to start-up, IPO, and well beyond. And you will meet the extraordinary personalities who have, in a very short time, enabled Israel to take her place on the world economic map.
Yehuda Menachem is the President of YMP International Inc.