Markets in Brief

The U.S. arm of Africa Israel Investments has agreed with creditors to restructure its poorly-timed 2007 purchase of the former New York Times headquarters near Times Square, The Wall Street Journal said Wednesday. The draft accord calls for Africa Israel, which paid $525 million for the building in 2007 and took on $715 million of debt, to give up half its ownership stake to private equity firm Five Mile Capital Partners, the newspaper said, citing industry sources. The venture would infuse money to repay other creditors, who are expected to suffer a big loss, given that about $465 million of debt will be wiped out, the newspaper added, citing the same sources. The building would then be turned into a mixed-use project comprising hotel, retail and condominium space. (Reuters)

Partner Communication said yesterday that it will seek to raise NIS 360 million in a private note placement. The company said it would issue up to two series of unsecured non-convertible notes to institutional investors. The final amount will be based on the results of a tender. The principal will be repayable in four annual installments between 2012 and 2015 and the notes will bear annual interest of 5.5% until their listing on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, which Partner hopes will take place by June 30, 2010. The interest rate to be borne by the notes following their listing for trade will be determined in a tender to institutional investors in Israel expected to take place around November 25. (Reuters)

The Israel Securities Authority has arrested broker Zvi Rabin, CEO of Kwan Communications, which manages public relations for Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, along with his wife and office manager Michal Ganor Soncino and Kwan's legal counsel, Guy Penn, on suspicions of abusing insider information for personal gain. In 2008, Rabin handled public relations for agriculture bio-tech firm Evogene and bought hundreds of thousands of shekels' worth of the company's stock through Soncino's account - shortly before the company announced its deal with the U.S. giant Monsanto. The Rabins made NIS 700,000 on the deal, the ISA found. Through their counsel, the Rabins denied wrongdoing. (Amit Benaroia)

Drug company Cephalon said on Thursday it has reached an agreement to settle its patent infringement dispute with Barr Pharmaceuticals over the pain drug Fentora. Under the agreement, Cephalon will grant Barr, a Teva Pharmaceutical Industries subsidiary, a non- exclusive, royalty-free right to market and sell a generic version of Fentora in the U.S. Cephalon had claimed Barr infringed Fentora patents that do not expire until 2019. Under the settlement, Barr will not attempt to enter the market before October 2018. (Reuters)

Makhteshim-Agan and Switzerland-based Syngenta announced they reached a long-term agreement under which Syngenta will supply MA with azoxystrobin, the world's best-selling fungicide. Syngenta will continue to expand sales of its azoxystrobin-based fungicide products, while Makhteshim-Agan will develop and commercialize its own products based on azoxystrobin, mainly in mixtures with its existing fungicide portfolio. Financial terms were not mentioned. (Reuters)

Construction company Alony Hetz yesterday reported a 218% leap in revenues for the third quarter of 2009, to NIS 261 million, thanks in no small part to a sharp upward reappraisal of its assets and an increase in its rental income - partly because it raised prices and partly because it bought new properties on which it's collecting rent. The company also made NIS 2.8 million from selling shares in the Canadian property investments company First Capital Realty and some shares in Gazit Globe. Pretax profit shot up to NIS 65 million, the company said, compared with a pretax loss of NIS 78 million in the parallel quarter of 2008. Last year the company had been hit by heavy financing costs of NIS 170 million in the third quarter. (Vadim Sviderski)

Following a warning from Nasdaq that Radcom was in violation of listing regulations, company founder and chairman Zohar Zisapel has exercised warrants for 20,300 Radcom shares at $3.20 each. His move brings his stake in the company to 31.6%, which brings Radcom back into compliance vis-a-vis the rule of $2.5 million minimum shareholders equity. (TheMarker)

BVR Systems, which makes simulators for military training purposes, admitted to losing $3.3 million, or 3 cents per share in the third quarter of 2009. In the parallel quarter it had netted $100,000 or zero per share. For the first nine months of 2009, BVR says it netted $200,000, again zero per share, while in the corresponding nine months of 2008 it had earned $1.1 million or 1 cent per share. Yet third-quarter revenues had increased a little to $10.9 million, from $9.1 million in the parallel quarter. Nine-month revenues climbed to $34.6 million, from $23.3 million in the corresponding period of 2008. The company's backlog at the quarter's end was $47.5 million, it said. (TheMarker)