Less than ten days after the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Finance, the Prime Minister's Office and the Government Companies Authority reached agreement on the privatization of Israel Military Industries (IMI), this evening the government approved the agreement. IMI will be privatized as a single entity, apart from its classified activity, which will remain state owned.
Under the agreement, the Ministry of Defense undertook to make future purchases from IMI to the tune of hundreds of millions of shekels annually. In addition, 36,000 square meters of land in the north-eastern part of the military headquarters (Kirya) in Tel Aviv and 421,000 square meters of the Tzrifin base will be vacated, to be used for residential construction.
IMI itself will move to the Negev. Its production will be transferred to its site at Ramat Beka by 2022, when the company's site in Ramat Hasharon will be vacated.
A new company, IMI Systems, will be set up, to which IMI's commercial activity will be transferred. This company will be privatized, unburdened by past liabilities. A new government company, Tomer, will take on the classified activity that is not being privatized. The state will undertake such matters is treating contaminated land on sites vacated by IMI and planning of those sites.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 26, 2013
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