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THE ECONOMY The Israeli company Soltam, will supply the U.S Army with mortars for more than $50 million, under an agreement signed recently between the company and the United States Defense Department. These are non-recoiling mortars that will be loaded onto a new type of troop carrier to be used by the U.S. Army for rapid deployment. The Soltam mortar's new features include the ability to "absorb" the blast waves while it is being fired, similar to a cannon. Furthermore, its rotating hinge is central, and it is therefore capable of firing in a full circle (3600). The Defense Department has paid Soltam a down payment for the purchase. In a deal worth $7 billion, the Israeli navigation company "Royal Caribbean", primarily owned by the Ofer family, will become the largest pleasure-cruise company in the world. Yesterday, the company announced that it will be merging with "P&O Princess", the world's third largest company in this sector, turning "Royal Caribbean" into the largest company in the sector. With this move, "Royal Caribbean" will thus force "Carnival", the company controlled by the Arison family, off its pedestal as the largest company in the sector until now. Market analysts estimate that after the merger, "Royal Caribbean" will be 10% larger than "Carnival". The Israeli company "Comverse" will supply uniform message systems to the world's largest cellular phone operator, the international "Vodaphone". The agreement will bring revenues of millions of dollars to "Comverse". Uniform message systems allow the cellular operator to offer its customers services such as fax, e-mail and voice mail to one mailbox. At a later stage, customers will be able to create, send and receive multimedia messages. "Vodaphone", originally a British company, has more than 100,000 employees and serves 93 million subscribers in 29 countries. It has a market value of $90 billion. Large overseas corporations are continuing to invest in Israel, despite the current political climate, including Morgan Stanley, which recently expanded its Israel office. Israel is the only branch of the bank in Europe whose operations expanded this year. Morgan Stanley is one of the largest investment banks in the world, with 60,000 employees and a market worth $63 billion. The decision to expand activity was made by the company's management, based on the belief that Israel has important strategic value in the technology field. The German hotel management company "Maritim", whose annual turnover is estimated at ?350 million and owns dozens of hotels in Germany, Mauritius, Tenerife and Riga, has for the first time entered the hotel management business in Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem. According to a senior Maritim official, the hotel sector is part of the old economy, and investments in this sector are still considered stable, at least in the long term. Israel's foreign trade deficit for the first ten months of the year amounted to $6.7 billion. Exports amounted to $16.7 billion, and imports to $23.4 billion. Thirty-two percent of exports during this period were to the European Community, 29% to the U.S., and the remainder to the rest of the world. Forty percent of imports were from Europe, 23% from the U.S., and 37% from other countries. The Israeli venture capital fund "JVP", this week completed its efforts to raise $400 million, one of the investors in the new fund being Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has invested $10 million in the Israeli fund, through his private investment group "FIN". Others who have invested in the Israeli VCF are the American fund "Harbor West" ($30 million), representatives of the Government of Singapore ($50 million), the Technion, as well as veteran investors such as "Boeing", "France Telecom", the "Horsley Bridge" fund, Columbia University, MIT and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. As for companies in trouble, the Israeli start-up "Buildcom", which runs an e-commerce site in the construction field, this week fired its 55 employees and announced that it intends to close the company within a few days, due to a lack of cash. The Israeli company "Alverion", which develops wireless access systems to broadband telecom networks, announced that it will be laying off 20% of its workforce - 141 employees. This is the company's second wave of layoffs, after dismissing 20% of its employees in July. As a result of the cut backs, the company will remain with 500 employees. "Alverion" encountered difficulties following the freezing of budgets by numerous telecom companies worldwide. The Israeli company "Jen Research", controlled by businessman Davidi Giloh, announced that it is laying off 60% of its workforce and indefinitely suspending the activity of its Multibeam division. This division develops high-speed optic computer drivers.
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