Markets in Brief

Asim Investments has rejected the request of its Series B1 bondholders to enter receivership and repay them their money. It can meet its liabilities, Asim insists. The request is groundless and was made in bad faith, the company stated in rather fruity language. "Nobody disputes that Asim has not violated any of its liabilities toward the [bondholders.] Therefore, there are no grounds to grant such drastic remedies, which would void the powers and duties of the company's organs, ruin the company and destroy its operations." In short, it said "no," citing that its dissolution would not serve the public. Asim owes its B1 bondholders NIS 72 million and its B2 bondholders another NIS 30 million. The bondholders had been alarmed by the sudden sale of the company by Adi Keizman to a group of investors and opacity regarding the identity of the new owners. (Michael Rochvarger)

Bank Leumi is exercising an option to acquire NIS 103 million worth of convertible corporate bonds issued by Scailex Corporation. The acquisition will be handled through its brokerage Leumi Partners. The bank received the option in August, when agreeing to buy a 5% stake in Partner Communications from Scailex, which belongs to Ilan Ben-Dov. Leumi gets the bonds at their issuance price in September: 100.2 agorot per bond. (Eti Aflalo)

While on Bank Leumi, the court agreed to turn a lawsuit against the bank into a class action. The bank is being sued for allegedly charging its clients for legal fees when it sues them. The claimant, Yafit Siloura, says the bank simply helps itself to money in client accounts when it sues them, even if the court hasn't ruled on legal costs. Moreover, the bank charges higher interest rates on costs that the court approved, she says. The bank denies that it charges client accounts for costs that were not ruled in its favor: It is diligent about waiting for the court to rule on costs, the bank insists. (Hila Raz)

If indeed the mining giant BHP Biliton buys Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, it might finance the deal by selling Israel Chemicals shares, suggest analysts at the Tel Aviv brokerage Excellence. News of the merger taking shape sent potash stocks soaring round the world on Monday, though Excellence notes that fertilizer prices tend to correlate with commodity prices. As commodity prices have been rising strongly, they could lie behind yesterday's surge in potash stocks, the brokerage admits. As for ICL investors, brace yourselves: "BHP owns 11.3% of ICL as a financial investment," says Excellence, and it might well sell in order to pay for Potash. Expect pressure on the share. (TheMarker)

Drug development company Ambrilia Biopharma says its Canadian subsidiary Cellpep Pharma has terminated, with immediate effect, the licensing and distribution agreement that its French subsidiary (also called Cellpep Pharma) had granted to Teva Pharmaceuticals Europe. Ambrilia is working on biotechnological solutions for cancer and viral diseases. (TheMarker)

Leadcom's bondholders voted in favor of the debt arrangement proposed for the company, by a whopping majority of 97%. The bondholders agreed not to recall their loans immediately and not to take legal steps against the company. They'll get better interest rates, paid twice a year - Leadcom rejected their request to get quarterly payments after the banks said "no." The banks will be providing new guarantees and have also agreed to wait until the end of 2010 to collect money due to them. (Nir Zalik)

RBC Capital Markets yesterday gave "green" energy company Ormat Industries an Outperform rating, at above average risk. Ormat is getting into solar power, on top of its geothermal and heat recovery endeavors. Its first stab seems to be a drive to build solar systems on Israeli rooftops and to sell the power to the Israel Electric Corporation. Installation of systems producing 36MWs will cost it nearly $200 million and should generate $30 million a year in revenues, RBC says. Now, since Ormat owns several power stations in "sunny U.S. locations," and assuming its venture in Israel bears fruit, it could develop a handsome solar business there too, RBC says. (TheMarker)

Equity analysts at IBI predict that Bank Hapoalim will have to provision NIS 400 million to NIS 600 million because of its exposure to Africa Israel, which is in financial difficulty. Africa Israel owes NIS 8 billion, of which NIS 7.5 billion is to bondholders and the rest to banks. Hapoalim is its biggest banking creditor and has rights to 46% of the company's stock, which is backing its loans to Memorand, a private company belonging to Lev Leviev. Analyst Lior Rabinowitz suggests that investors reduce their exposure to Hapoalim, to go long on Hapoalim and short on Leumi. Hapoalim stated that it can't comment on its provisioning before releasing its relevant financial statement. (Michael Rochvarger)