Markets in Brief

Ginko Oil Exploration, the general partner in the Zerah exploration partnership, is planning to float shares on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. The company will be filing its draft prospectus with the Israel Securities Authority next week. It hopes to raise somewhere between NIS 40 million and NIS 50 million, which it would invest in exploring for fossil fuels. It has yet to choose an underwriter. Unlike the other gas exploration bodies, which are limited partnerships (that are eligible for certain tax breaks), Ginko is a regular company. (Lior Zeno)

Bankruptcies judge Varda Alshech yesterday hinted that she'll be rejecting the motion of Lagna Holdings' bondholders to issue a stay of proceedings against the company. Lagna controls the real estate company Engel Europe, which controls Engel resources, and is itself controlled by Shaya Boymelgreen's company Azorim. The Lagna group's main assets is various properties around eastern Europe. Lagna owes its bondholders NIS 750 million, and all told, owes creditors about NIS 2 billion, apparently. It appears that Bank Hapoalim, which is owed NIS 230 million, and Bank Leumi, which is owed NIS 170 million, oppose allowing the legal proceedings against Lagna to be halted. (Hila Raz)

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted Teva Pharmaceutical Industries final approval to market generic versions of Merck's antihypertensive agents Hyzaar (hydrochlorothiazide; losartan potassium) and Cozaar (losartan potassium). Teva points out that as the first generic drug company to file drug applications under paragraph IV certification, it has exclusive marketing rights for 180 days regarding both drugs. The brand products had combined annual sales of about $1.6 billion in the United States, based on IMS sales data, Teva says. (TheMarker)

Does Sandisk feel that TowerJazz's share price has exhausted its potential? Sandisk owns 7% of Tower's stock, or had been. The company, which is Tower's biggest shareholder, filed to sell 6.4 million shares through Morgan Stanley. The sale apparently took place on March 26, when the share price was $1.68, which would have brought it $10.7 million. In December 2009, Sandisk sold 1.9 million Tower shares for $1.8 million. Israel Corporation will become the biggest shareholder, with 6.3%. (Nir Zalik)

Tax revenue in March 2010 reached NIS 16.3 billion, compared with NIS 13.1 billion in February 2010 and NIS 14.4 billion in March 2009. Capital gains tax amounted to NIS 218 million in March, an increase of 4% compared with the same month of 2009. Income tax produced NIS 3.4 billion in March, up 6.3% from March 2009, and revenues from corporate tax increase by 15%. Revenues from land tax jumped 84% in inflation-adjusted terms to NIS 622 million. (Yael Halak)

Israel's foreign currency reserves shot up to $62.4 billion in March 2010, an increase of $1.74 billion from the month before, the Bank of Israel said yesterday. During March the central bank bought about $500 million worth of foreign currency on the forex market. Also, the reserves were beefed up by $1.4 billion in government transfers from overseas, while the private sector contributed $16 million. (TheMarker)

On the other hand, the government ran a deficit of NIS 3.8 billion in March 2010, based on a domestic deficit of NIS 3.5 billion and a deficit on overseas activity amounting to NIS 300 million, the Finance Ministry said yesterday. From April 2009 to February 2010 inclusive, the Finance Ministry had been steadily shrinking the 12-month deficit, a trend that ground to a halt in March. Seen over 12 months the government ran a deficit of NIS 37.5 billion, while when measured from February, the 12-month deficit was NIS 37.1 billion. (Yael Halak)

Commtouch Software would like the world to know that it added five new OEM partners during the first quarter of 2010. That brings the number of OEM partners using Commtouch messaging and/or Web security technologies to 137, the company says. (TheMarker)

Exalenz Bioscience has signed an agreement with a big pharma distribution company to market in Israel its kits that detect the presence of H. pylori bacteria, which are known to cause stomach ulcers. The distributor had to undertake minimal sales in exchange for exclusivity regarding the kits. Exalenz did not disclose the name of the distributor. Its shares rose nearly 10% on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, on respectably heavy turnover of NIS 3.4 million. (TheMarker)