Markets in Brief

Bharat Electronics, fondly known as BEL, is negotiating to found joint ventures with defense companies around the world - including Israel's Elbit Systems and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, according to the Indian media. BEL chairman and managing director Ashwani Kumar Datt told Indian papers that the company would invest between $250 million and $300 million in these ventures. Among the things it likes are Elbit Systems' night-vision and electro-optical technologies, reportedly. (Ora Coren)

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Stents maker ITGI Medical raised NIS 8.9 million in a rights issue on Tuesday. Shareholders leaped at the offer: 99.9% of the units of rights were snapped up. The company means to use the money to meet sales goals and accelerate growth. At present its market capitalization is a modest NIS 12.6 million. (Paz Vaysman)

Investments firm Excellence reported second-quarter net profit of NIS 25 million, down 24% from the parallel quarter of 2008. For the first half Excellence, which belongs to Yitzhak Tshuva's Phoenix insurance group, reported netting NIS 65 million, a slight increase compared with the corresponding period of 2008. In other words, the first quarter had been a good one. Revenues were down 7.6% to NIS 256 million for the first half, down from NIS 277 million in the parallel six months of 2008. Management of assets and mutual funds brought in revenues of NIS 42 million in the first half of 2007, down from NIS 52 million in the corresponding period of 2008. (TheMarker)

Antares Pharma said on Tuesday that its partner Teva Pharmaceutical Industries has launched its new Tjet needle-free injector system to administer human growth hormone (hGH). The Tjet device will be available exclusively in combination with the Teva hGH product Tev-Tropin (somatropin rDNA for injection), the company said. HGH is typically given to growth-challenged children. (TheMarker)

Ilan Ben-Dov's company Scailex reported its results including cellular activities it acquired from Suny, which sells Samsung cellphones in Israel. In the second quarter of 2009 Suny's revenues shrank by 3% a month, on average, because of lower sales of Samsung phones to cellular service provider Pelephone. When Pelephone launched its GSM network, it began selling both Nokia and Sony phones, Scailex explained. Scailex's revenues totaled NIS 254 million in the second quarter, of which NIS 75 million were interest income on its billion-shekel kitty, and NIS 179 million was from selling cellphones. Of the NIS 179 million, NIS 33 million originated from the Dynamica Cellular chain of stores. Scailex is the vehicle through which Ben-Dov is buying Partner Communications for NIS 5.79 billion. (Amitai Ziv)

Insurer Shlomo Eliahu controls the insurance company Eliahu and also owns 9.7% of Bank Leumi. The state owns 11% of Bank Leumi, and Eliahu insists that means the state doesn't own the controlling interest in the bank. He raised his persistent claim again recently, demanding that the bank not write in a prospectus that it's controlled by the state. Leumi consulted with the Bank of Israel and Finance Ministry. The central bank answered that the state is the legal controlling shareholder of Leumi. The ministry is expected to say the same. (Sharon Shpurer)

Real-estate investments fund REIT-1 raised NIS 45 million by expanding its B2 bond series. Demand for the bonds reached NIS 80 million. The tender closed at a premium of 0.7% above one-year makams. REIT, which is controlled by the Excellence investments firm, owns 13 yield-generating properties, mainly office buildings, valued at about a billion shekels. (Michael Rochvarger)

Formula Systems on Tuesday reported a significant drop in revenues for the second quarter of 2009. The holding company, which is owned by Emblaze and controls Matrix, Magic Software, Sapiens and Next Source, explained that the main problem was unfavorable exchange rates: During the quarter the dollar strengthened by 16.9% compared with the parallel quarter of 2008. If the exchange rate had stayed the same, its revenues would have risen in dollar terms, Formula explained. So: Quarterly revenues were $132.9 million, down 12.3% from the parallel quarter. Cost of sales dropped from $115.5 million in the parallel quarter to NIS $102 million, which hurt its margins. Formula netted $3.7 million or 27 cents per share, down 12% from the parallel quarter. (Nir Zalik) \

Plunging raw material prices boosted fabrics producer Spuntech's second-quarter operating profit 270% against the parallel quarter to NIS 11.8 million, despite a 4% decrease in revenues to NIS 84 million. Spuntech said there had been no substantial change in the quantity of products sold: the drop in revenues was primarily a result of dropping sale prices, which had been adjusted in light of the sharp decline in the price of the firm's main raw materials. Spuntech stock has risen 130% this year, lifting its market cap to NIS 192 million. (Nathan Sheva)