Business in Brief

The Bank of Israel will start sending out letters in two weeks notifying 200 to 300 retired senior central bank officials that they have to repay illegal salary overpayments. All together, more than NIS 50 million is supposed to be repaid; some former employees could even have to return hundreds of thousands of shekels each. They will be entitled to appeal the decision, however. The illegal overpayments were for the 1998 to 2005 period. Last week the bank notified some officials who retired before 1998 that they do not owe any money - even if they also received such payments. The central bank was forced to take this step as part of the arbitration process over a new wage agreement for its employees. (Moti Bassok)

After numerous delays and endless speculation, Apple has officially announced that its iPhone will be coming to Israel between December 7-10. The cellular operators were notified last Thursday, and the official launch date and ceremonies will be announced soon. Cellcom, Partner and Pelephone will all be required to start selling on the same date. The three firms are interested in starting before Hanukkah, which begins a few days after the launch. (Amitai Ziv)

Arkia will start regular flights on a brand-new St. Petersburg-Eilat route. Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz approved the new route, and Arkia as the airline, at the end of last week. Arkia CEO Gad Tepper said the airline would start flights as soon as it received all the necessary approvals from Israeli and Russian aviation authorities. Katz said the move was part of the ministry's policy of including other Israeli airlines on Russian routes. (Zohar Blumenkrantz)

Intel will reopen its Jerusalem Fab 8 semiconductor manufacturing plant next week. It closed the facility down last year in order to convert it to a die preparation plant, which will operate as a branch of Intel's huge Kiryat Gat facility. (Paz Vaysman)

President Shimon Peres is flying off today on an official visit to Brazil and Argentina, accompanied by Tourism and Communications Ministers Stas Misezhnikov and Moshe Kahlon, and some 40 Israeli business people. The trip is intended to strengthen strategic, political and economic ties between the countries - especially in light of Iranian attempts to do the same. A few days after Peres' trip, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Brazil. Peres will also try to advance a free-trade agreement between Israel and the South American Mercosur bloc. A deal was signed in December 2007, but it is still awaiting approval by the countries' parliaments. Israel exported $499 million in goods to Brazil in the first nine months of 2009, a 52% drop from the same period last year. Exports to Argentina were $52 million for the same period. (Shuki Sadeh)