Israel Corp. Reports Results for Fourth Quarter of 2022

TEL AVIV, Israel, March 16, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Israel Corporation Ltd. (TASE: ILCO) ("IC") announced today its fourth quarter and annual results for the period ending December 31, 2022.

Selected Financial Figures for the fourth Quarter and 2022:

Debt Balances and Liquidity at the IC Headquarters Level[2]

As of December 31, 2022, total financial liabilities¹ were $1,132 million, and investments in liquid assets amounted to $982 million of which $8 are pledged deposits.

Net debt¹ as of December 31, 2022, totaled $179 million. The net debt includes the fair value of derivative transactions, which increases the economic value of the financial liabilities in the amount of $10 million, and the fair value of the Bazan call options³ which increases the economic value of the financial liabilities by $19m. As of September 30, 2022, the net debt¹ was $234m.

Additional updates

In January 2023, IC announced that the Board of Directors approved the adoption of a dividend policy. IC will distribute dividend for each calendar year starting at 2023, amounting to 45% out of the amount received from: the total net dividend cash flow received from its held companies for that calendar year, less an annual amount of $75m (from the amount of said cash flow). The actual dividend distribution will be subject to IC Board approval.

Further to the IC's Reports regarding a transaction for the sale of approximately 9% of the shares of Bazan on November 2021 in which IC granted a call option to each of the purchasers, on February 9, 2023, agreement was reached with the purchasers regarding the exercise of the entirety of the said options, which was implemented on February 13, 2023, for approximately NIS 227m (equivalent to approximately US $64m)

On February 9, IC announced that subject to the completion of the sale of the underlying shares of the said options and the actual receipt of the consideration thereof by IC, the Board of Directors of IC intends to consider adopting a buyback plan for shares of the company during 2023 in a scope of approximately half of the amount of the consideration.

On March 3, 2023, IC completed an investment into Nordic Aqua Partners A/S, which is building an Atlantic Salmon land-based facility in China with AKVA as its technology provider, in an amount of NOK 89m (~$9m).

As a holding company, the financial results of IC are mainly affected by the results of its held companies. For more details see detailed financial report.

IC Total Assets, Net

[1] For more details on the sale of 16.687% of Bazan shares please refer to IC Q3/2022 financial statements and immediate report dated September 15, 2022

[2] Israel Corp and its wholly owned and controlled headquarter companies.

[3] Relating to options granted to qualified investors as part of the November 2021 9% share sale and to options granted to Petrochemical Group as part of the Bazan ~16.7% stake sale in September 2022.

[4] As of December 29, 2022, for ICL and December 30, 2022, for AKVA Group.

[5]Based on the exercise price agreed by the company with the call options purchasers on February 9, 2023.

About Israel Corporation

Israel Corporation Ltd. (TASE: ILCO) ("IC") is a reputable public investment company, which owns and invests in high quality companies with established managements and go-to markets.

In November 2019, IC announced its updated strategy, IC plans to expand its portfolio through new investments over the next few years. IC plans to focus mainly on the food (inc. tech), agriculture (inc. tech), healthcare and industry 4.0 sectors. For more details please see the following link to IC updated Strategy Presentation

IC strives to generate return on its investment through active board participations and its operational and managerial expertise.

IC current core holdings include c.44% stake in ICL Group (NYSE:ICL, TASE:ICL) and c.18% stake in AKVA Group (OB:AKVA). IC is publicly traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange under the ticker ILCO and is included in the TA-35 Index.

For further information on IC, see IC's publicly available filings, which can be found on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange website at http://maya.tase.co.il.

Please also see IC company website http://www.israelcorp.com for additional information.

Convenience Translation

The financial information found in this press release is an English summary based on the original Hebrew financial statements and is solely for the convenience of the reader. The binding version is the original in Hebrew.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements, which may not materialize and are subject to risks and uncertainties that are not under the control of IC, which may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the disclosures.

Investor Relations Contact
Idan Hizki
Vice President, Business Development & Investor Relations
Tel: +972 3 684 4500
[email protected]

SOURCE Israel Corporation Ltd.