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Markets in Brief

Investors said no to Zohar Zisapel, chairman of Radvision, who'd offered to repurchase 5% of Radvision's stock for $7.70 per share. His offer was 2.2% below the stock's price on the open market the day before. Holders of only 0.9% acquiesced. Since the offer had been conditional on the holders of 5% acceding, Zisapel called off the tender. Originally, on April 30, Zisapel offered to buy back Radvision stock for $6.30 per share, which was 11% below the price on the open market at the time. A month later he sweetened the offer to $7.70. Still no go. (Nir Zalik)

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A NIS 220 million class-action motion has been filed against Keshet Bonds and its directors and owners, the Maalot S&P credit rating agency, the trust company of Bank Leumi and the brokerage firm Excellence-Nessuah. The claimants argue that these parties failed to compensate investors for losses incurred from Keshet bonds. Maalot initially gave the bonds the maximal AAA rating, and then downgraded them slightly two years later. Then one fine day, September 15, 2008, the bonds' price plunged from 75 agorot to 40 agorot, or 47%, following the collapse of Lehman Bros. Two days after that precipitous fall, Maalot downgraded the bonds drastically, from near the maximum to rock-bottom, meaning the company wouldn't be making interest or principal payments. The bondholders were out all their money, and they weren't amused by Maalot's hindsight. Maalot and the others had a duty to stay on top of capital market developments, the plaintiffs argue: The writing had been on the wall before Lehman's collapse, but the defendants did nothing and couldn't have cared less, thus betraying their duty to bondholders. Maalot declined to comment and Excellence-Nessuah said it would be responding in court. (Hila Raz)

Eli Yones, the chief executive of Bank Mizrahi-Tefahot, believes mortgage banks should not relax loan terms to help struggling homeowners. Israel's real estate market has weathered the global storm because it maintained its balance, Yones says, fully correlating asset values to the client's ability to repay. He doesn't banks should take on risk to help troubled clients. That's the state's job, Yones says, adding that no more than 1% of mortgages are in trouble. (Yuval Maoz)

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and its partner in laquinimod, Active Biotech of Sweden, have finished enrolling patients for the second pivotal Phase III clinical trial, the two companies said last week. The immuno-modulating compound is being developed as a once-daily oral therapy for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. Teva has Copaxone to treat RRMS, but that's an injectable, whereas laquinimod is orally administered. Now the question is whether it works. This global clinical trial will evaluate the efficacy, safety and tolerability of laquinimod versus a placebo and provide risk-benefit data for laquinimod versus an injectable treatment, Avonex. (TheMarker)

While on Teva, Royal Bank of Canada's local affiliate, Tamir Fishman, issued an Outperform rating for the drug company and analyzed the upside from Teva's April release of generic Adderall, assuming that additional competition is delayed. Teva is now halfway through the 180-day exclusivity period. Teva (which bought the drug with Barr, the first filer, in August 2006) faces competition from Impax on day 181 and possibly other companies, too, though RBC thinks that far-fetched. If Impax gets into the ring alone, RBC sees Teva adding 4 cents per share from Adderall in the last quarter of this year. If heavy competition ensues, RBC sees a 1-cent addition to EPS. (TheMarker)

Hutchison Whampoa is trying to expedite the sale of its controlling interest in Partner Communications, the Israeli mobile operator that uses the brand name Orange. It's been nagging potential buyers to table their final bids and, whisper sources near the process, it has been employing various forms of pressure to get it over with. The Chinese company owns 51% of Partner and has hired Amikam Cohen, once Partner's CEO, to handle negotiations with interested companies. These reportedly include the private equity fund FIMI, run by Ishay Davidi, and Shaul Elovitch's telecom empire Eurocom, which has everything but a cellular service provider. (Amitai Ziv)

Scailex, once upon a time know as Scitex, estimates that it racked up second-quarter financing income of NIS 68 million, up from NIS 32 million in the first quarter of 2009. For the record, Scailex reported netting NIS 61.5 million in the first quarter, up from NIS 31.1 million in the parallel quarter of 2008. (TheMarker)

Businessman Nochi Dankner, who owns the sprawling IDB group of companies, considered buying the evening business newspaper Globes six months ago. He didn't, though. He also reportedly considered buying Maariv, a daily tabloid. He didn't buy that either. Capital market sources whisper that Eliezer Fishman is thinking of selling his interest in Globes because of the printed press's difficulties in the Internet era, and because of the intensifying competition in the business press sub-sector. (Ora Coren)
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