Business brief
Consolidation in the Skies and a Dairy Giant Prepares to Float
Israir circles struggling rival Arkia, Tnuva targets a ₪10 billion public listing, and Camtek posts record packaging revenue.
Business
Tnuva is reviving a ₪10 billion public listing to give Bright Food and kibbutz partners an exit route — opening Israel's largest food empire to public scrutiny.
BackgroundTnuva is Israel's largest food producer, supplying dairy, poultry, and packaged consumer goods across domestic supermarket shelves. Chinese state-owned enterprise Bright Food acquired a 75% controlling stake in 2014, while Israeli kibbutz organizations retain the remaining 25%.
- Tnuva retained corporate legal counsel to structure the flotation and begin soundings with local institutional pension funds managing mandatory savings.
- Previous flotation attempts in 2021 and 2025 collapsed over sharp valuation disagreements and government pricing caps on staple dairy products.
- Company executives stressed that the public listing is aimed at establishing market liquidity and capital flexibility rather than paying down corporate debt.
Business
Soaring jet fuel and prolonged regional route disruptions forced Arkia into insolvency — leaving rival Israir as the country's only viable rescue buyer.
BackgroundArkia and Israir are Israel's primary secondary carriers, operating domestic routes between Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Eilat alongside Mediterranean leisure charters. Arkia is owned 78% by the Nakash brothers and 22% by airline employees, leaving ownership fractured during restructurings.
- Arkia accumulated $30 million in losses across the first nine months of 2026, driving projected annual deficits toward $60 million as flight schedules faced regional turbulence.
- Arkia labor unions staged street protests in Bnei Brak, demanding binding job guarantees and threatening indefinite operational strikes if an ownership transfer proceeds unilaterally.
- Antitrust regulators are unlikely to allow dominant carrier El Al to bid, leaving Israir as the sole domestic suitor with the clearance to absorb Arkia's fleet.
Business
Surging demand for high-bandwidth AI memory is translating directly into record margins for Camtek — cementing optical metrology as a critical choke point in advanced chipmaking.
BackgroundAdvanced packaging metrology systems visually inspect layered microchip dies and heterogeneous silicon interconnects before final processor assembly. Camtek manufactures automated optical inspection machinery for global semiconductor foundries in Asia and the United States.
- GAAP operating income reached $39.8 million with a 50.0% gross margin, driven by premium pricing on specialized optical inspection modules.
- Non-GAAP operating margins expanded to 29.5%, reflecting strong operating leverage as chipmakers aggressively scale high-density packaging lines.
- Management raised forward shipments guidance, citing multi-year foundry backlogs for complex microchip architectures powering generative AI infrastructure.
Business
Grid battery margins in Europe and fixed-rate project debt are shielding Enlight from interest-rate headwinds — proving that utility storage can out-earn merchant power generation.
BackgroundEnlight develops, finances, and operates utility-scale solar, wind, and battery energy storage facilities across Israel, Europe, and the United States. The dual-listed green energy producer has aggressively expanded grid-scale battery storage to capture volatile peak-power wholesale pricing.
- Quarterly adjusted EBITDA jumped 38% as newly commissioned European battery storage assets delivered lucrative grid balancing and frequency regulation fees.
- Enlight holds $420 million in liquid reserves, with 86% of its project debt locked in fixed-rate structures to neutralize higher interest expenses.
- Construction broke ground across all five phases of the flagship 2.4-gigawatt Bar-CO solar complex in Colorado, securing long-term US cash flows.
Business
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