Markets in Brief

The Israel Corporation reported yesterday that on Friday it injected $21 million into Better Place, as agreed. Altogether Israel Corporation has pledged $100 million to Better Place, of which it has already provided $84.6 million, including the most recent payment. Better Place is developing infrastructure to enable mass proliferation of electric cars, which it hopes will replace cars powered by environmentally destructive fossil fuels. (TheMarker)

Satellite communications company Orbit-Alchut Technologies has won a contract worth roughly NIS 6 million to supply systems to track hurricanes and tornadoes in the United States. The client is a veteran customer of Orbit's - a "leading," yet unnamed, company that monitors weather in the United States. Orbit says this is its third order from that firm. (TheMarker)

The IDB group advised yesterday that it finalized the purchase of the HSBC headquarters in New York, through group company Discount Investment's subsidiary Property & Building. The deal was carried out through an IDB group company registered in the United States. (TheMarker)

NICE Systems is reportedly close to closing its third acquisition inside a year. This time, it's Israeli company Orsus. Founded in 1999, Orsus supplies "situation management" software, which the company defines as "methods for coordinating the interaction between people, technologies, and responses." More helpfully, the company adds that its programs help ensure that "everyone in operational chain knows what is happening and what to do." NICE is reportedly prepared to pay between $20 million to $40 million for Orsus, which was founded by Arie Feingold of Mercury Interactive fame, among others. In August, NICE acquired Hexagon System Engineering of Ra'anana, which provides cellular location tracking technology. In September NICE announced the acquisition of Fortent, which makes systems to combat money-laundering. (TheMarker)

Armoring maker Rabintex says its U.S. subsidiary Burtek is settling a legal dispute against one of its former suppliers, which allegedly violated a non-competition agreement. Burtek will get compensation for each truck the supplier supplies to a certain end client. The final compensation should be about $6.4 million, Rabintex says, of which $1.8 million will be forthcoming before year-end. The rest should be paid by June 1, 2011, depending on the pace at which the offending company supplies the trucks to the end client. If the client orders more trucks afterward, Burtek will get more compensation, Rabintex says. (TheMarker)

Delek Automotive, which imports Mazda and Ford vehicles to Israel, late last week reported strong results for the third quarter. That is, in terms of vehicles delivered: operating profit contracted as the company's margins narrowed. Third-quarter revenues rose 7% from the year before to NIS 1.45 billion. But the rising cost of buying the new cars and an increase in operating costs, mainly marketing and sales, eroded operating profit by 43% to NIS 148 million, Delek Automotive said. The company's net profit shrank by 42% year over year to NIS 113 million. So why did marketing costs climb? Because of the loud launch of the Mazda 3. (Tal Levy)

Wet-wipes maker Avgol yesterday reported revenues of NIS 52 million, down 23% from the parallel quarter of 2008, which the company ascribed to lower sales prices. This, in turn, the company ascribed to a drop in its outlay on raw materials. Avgol's contracts with its main clients include a mechanism that lowers the price when the cost of raw materials declines. That said, operating profit increased 82% to NIS 4.7 million, Avgol said. It achieved net profit of $2.5 million, which is nice, considering that it lost $3.7 million in the parallel quarter of 2008. (Vadim Sviderski)

Also late last week, the representatives of Africa Israel Investments' B9-series bondholders motioned the Tel Aviv District Court to summon Lev Leviev, the company's controlling shareholder, for questioning. Two weeks ago, as Africa Israel had warned in advance, the company defaulted on more than half a billion shekels in principal to the B9 bondholders. The money had been due on November 10. The B9 bondholders claim to have learned late last week that Africa Israel's motivation in reaching an arrangement with its bondholders (all the bondholders other than the B9 holders, that is) lay in the interests of Leviev and the banks, hence the desire for a public inquiry in court. (Sharon Shpurer)

Software house Retalix said yesterday that the private placement it announced in September with the Alpha investor group was consummated yesterday. Retalix issued 3.6 million ordinary shares, or 17.7% of its share capital plus warrants for another 1.3 million shares, for $32.9 million gross. The Alpha group, consisting of Boaz Dotan, Eli Gelman, Nehemia Lemelbaum, Avinoam Naor and Mario Segal, now owns 20% of the company's outstanding share capital. (TheMarker)