Israel Corporation ( he, החברה לישראל) (also Israel Corp) is

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

's largest

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

. It was founded in 1968 by the Government of the State of Israel. 50% of its manufacturing activities and 70% of its consolidated revenues derive from global operations. Its core holdings are

fertilizers A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...

and

specialty chemicals Speciality chemicals (also called specialties or effect chemicals) are particular chemical products which provide a wide variety of effects on which many other industry sectors rely. Some of the categories of speciality chemicals are adhesives, agr ...

, energy, shipping and transportation. Israel Corp is a constituent of the

TA-35 Index TA-35 Index is an Israeli stock market index computed by the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange tracking the performance of 35 large companies listed on stock exchanges in Israel. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices in Israel, considered ...

of leading shares of the

Tel Aviv Stock Exchange The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE; ; colloquially known as The Bursa, ) is Israel's only public stock exchange and a public company that has been traded on the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange since August 1, 2019. Legally, the exchange is regulated by ...

. Two of its major holdings,

Israel Chemicals ICL Group Ltd. (Hebrew: איי.סי. אל. גרופ בע"מ) (formerly Israel Chemicals Ltd., ICL) is a multi-national manufacturing concern that develops, produces and markets fertilizers, metals and other special-purpose chemical products. I ...

and

Oil Refineries Ltd BAZAN Group, (ORL or BAZAN, ), formerly Oil Refineries Ltd., is an oil refining and petrochemicals company located in Haifa Bay, Israel. It operates the largest oil refinery in the country. ORL has a total oil refining capacity of approximatel ...

are also constituents of the TA-35 Index.

History

The Israel Corp was founded by the government of Israel in 1968, together with

Shaul Eisenberg Shaul Nehemia Eisenberg ( he, שאול אייזנברג; 22 September 1921 – 27 March 1997) was an Israeli businessman and billionaire tycoon. Biography Shaul Eisenberg was born in Munich to a religious Jewish family from Poland, being the fif ...

, who was one of the first strategic foreign investors in Israeli history, under the initiative of then Minister of Finance,

Pinchas Sapir Pinchas Sapir ( he, פנחס ספיר, born Pinchas Kozlowski 15 October 1906 – 12 August 1975) was an Israeli politician during the first three decades following the country's founding. He held two important ministerial posts, Minister of Fin ...

of the

Israeli Labor Party The Israeli Labor Party ( he, מִפְלֶגֶת הָעֲבוֹדָה הַיִּשְׂרְאֵלִית, ), commonly known as HaAvoda ( he, הָעֲבוֹדָה, , The Labor), is a social democratic and Zionist political party in Israel. The pa ...

, who changed the Encouragement of Capital Investments Law to attract foreign investment. The change ensured that the company's owners were exempt from taxes for 30 years and received other benefits. In 1975, the director general of Israel Corp, Michael Tzur, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after he was convicted on 18 counts of embezzlement, theft, fraud and bribery. He was released from prison in 1981. Shares of the company were offered to the public in 1969, 1970, 1974 and 1982, and the company was listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in 1982. After Eisenberg's death in 1998, the family sold control of the company to the Ofer family. In 2007, 55% of the equity of the company was held by the

Ofer Brothers Group The Ofer Brothers Group ( he, קבוצת האחים עופר) was an Israeli family shipping business started by the billionaire Ofer family which is today known as XT Group. History Sammy Ofer, KBE (22 February 1922 – 3 June 2011) born in Roma ...

, 18% by

Bank Leumi Bank Leumi ( he, בנק לאומי, lit. ''National Bank''; ar, بنك لئومي) is an Israeli bank. It was founded on February 27, 1902, in Jaffa as the ''Anglo Palestine Company'' as subsidiary of the Jewish Colonial Trust (Jüdische Kolonia ...

and the remainder by the public.

Major holdings

Israel Corp's major holdings are

Tower Semiconductor Tower Semiconductor Ltd. is an Israeli company that manufactures integrated circuits using specialty process technologies, including SiGe, BiCMOS, Silicon Photonics, SOI, mixed-signal and RFCMOS, CMOS image sensors, non-imaging sensors, power ...

Kenon Holdings Kenon Holdings is a public corporation, which is a spin off from Israel Corporation, traded on the New York Stock Exchange and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Owned by Israeli businessman Idan Ofer, it controls Israel Corp's investment in companies ...

and

Zim Integrated Shipping Services Zim Integrated Shipping Services Ltd., commonly known as ZIM ( he, צים, ''tsim''; a biblical word meaning "a fleet of ships", Numbers 24:24), is a Public company, publicly held Israeli international List of largest container shipping ...

Criticism

The Israel Corporation was criticized in a

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

examining the influence of big business on Israeli politics. The movie ''

The Shakshuka System ''The Shakshuka System'' ( he, שיטת השקשוקה) is a 2008 Israeli documentary film created by the Israeli investigative journalist Mickey Rosenthal and the Israeli director Ilan Aboody. The film focuses on the connection between private ...

'' chronicles the history of the company, and how it had allegedly benefited from a "revolving-door" practice between the public and the private sector, from its extensive network of connections in Israel's political system and economic circles, and from a high degree of influence on local media to squelch potential criticism. Among the major allegations presented by the film was the

Bazan Navantia is a Spanish state-owned shipbuilding company, which offers its services to both military and civil sectors. It is the fifth-largest shipbuilder in Europe and the ninth-largest in the world with shipyards around the globe. The heir to t ...

sale incident, in which the company's stake in the country's largest oil refinery was bought out by Israel's treasury, for what many considered to be an overvalued sum, especially since Israel Corp. was bound by an agreement to return its holding of Bazan to the state without compensation. The company had allegedly blocked the film from being broadcast on any of Israel's commercial TV channels, and it was finally broadcast on Channel One.

References

External links

Israel Corporation

Ofer Brothers Group
{{TA 25 companies Holding companies established in 1968 Companies listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Conglomerate companies of Israel Companies based in Tel Aviv Ofer family Holding companies of Israel Israeli companies established in 1968

History

Major holdings

Criticism

See also

References

External links