Delek Group is one of Israel’s largest conglomerates and its business is gas. Gas stations in particular. Last week the company re-initiated talks with Shell Canada to discuss purchasing Shell’s refinery in Montreal.

It’s not the first time the subject has come up, but according to Larry Lalonde, a spokesman for Shell Canada, it’s the last time the two companies will try to negotiate a sale. If there’s no sale, Shell has announced its intention to convert the refinery into a fuel terminal in November 2010. The conversion would mean a workforce of 40 at the refinery, much smaller than the number of people presently working there. Operating and upgrading costs at the refinery have been estimated at $600-to-$800 million.

The two companies have been trying to reach a deal for over a year, with Delek being represented by one of its US subsidiaries. Last week Shell gave Delek 48 hours to reconsider its decision to leave the negotiating table last month.

According to news reports, Shell said it would be willing sell the refinery to Delek-U.S. for the “offer sheet” price of up to $200 million, plus an additional $400 million in working capital and $500 million in capital investments, such as maintenance and upgrades.

Fans of Canada’s “Canada for Better Place” website can’t wait for the roll out of an all-electric vehicle grid to hit the roads of Canada. Better Place, the Israeli company based in California has designs to electrify not only Canada’s roads, but roads of the world.

Canada’s Israel blog has previously reported Better Place’s Shai Agassi’s activities in the Province of Ontario (see the article Shai Agassi Goes Canadian, Eh?), but a strong Canadian connection to the Better Place plan is already in the works through a deep business agreement being developed by an Israeli firm, the mega-huge holding company Israel Corp, China’s Chery, an automobile manufacturer, Canada’s Magna Steyr, a division of Frank Stronach’s Magna International, and Italy’s Italdesign.

Israel Corp, who now owns 40% of Better Place found it was waiting too long for Renault-Nissan to bring its car to market (I was at an inauguration of the Renault car a couple of months ago). So the Israeli company has decided to team up with partners and produce its own version of the electric car –– one that will be compatible with the Better Place recharging grid, now being developed in Israel, and also with Better Place’s battery swap depots, now debuting in Japan. The current market issue with the electric car is time it takes to recharge. Better Place, has developed instead, a swappable battery that can be replaced in 5 minutes, at stations conveniently located like gas stations throughout the grid’s network. The company is also working in Israel to install charge points at popular shopping venues, train stations and at the workplace parking lots of big firms.

The plan to develop a new electric car model looks like it undercuts Renault-Nissan, which has also vested interests in Better Place.

According to an article in yesterday’s Globes, a daily business newspaper from Israel:

Better Place’s only current electric car is the Renault Fluence. Industry sources believe that Renault has imposed numerous restrictions on the global marketing of the car, which is why a source of cars from Israel Corp., which currently owns 40% of Better Place, is a critical factor for the venture’s business development.

Israel Corp. estimates that in order to begin mass production of the electric cars, it will require an additional €400 million in outside financing, which it will obtain from banks and government grants.

In the new international partnership, involving Magna Steyr based in Austria, the Chinese car manufacturer and the Italian design company, the group will develop 4 models of an electric car, and in parallel will develop petrol-fueled versions as well. The cars will be based on the engine made by Chery-Quantum LLC, a new joint venture between Israel Corp. and Chery Automobile Company Co. Ltd.

Expect these 4 new models of electric car, which may or may not resemble the above image from Chery.

1. The Chery urban compact CF1X
2. A family sedan CF11
3. The hatchback based on the same chassis CF14,
4. The compact road-off road recreation vehicle CF16

Frank Stronach’s Magna gave my sister a job for years until the recent financial woes for the company set in. Now it looks like Magna is taking a more dominant role in the new market of electric vehicles, which many believe is not just a responsible step in the right direction, but one with potentially huge financial gains.

Does this Canadian-Austrian-Israeli-Chinese-Italian league of companies getting together mean that a province-wide, or a nation-wide electric car grid is around the corner for Canada? Environmentalists like me certainly hope so. Besides, my dad’s been complaining too much recently about the price of gas. Stronach: if you can influence in any way an electric model pickup truck for every day Joe’s north of Toronto to drive, I am sure you will pick a market winner.

For more on this development, you can see an earlier sum-up of the electric car deal on my Middle East blog, Green Prophet. I am sure this will hit the Canadian newspapers soon. Remember, you read it here on Canada’s Israel first.

And just in: here’s a pic of Stronach eying a Ford electric car, captured by CTV news. He’s also announced plans for building electric cars in Canada. Looks like new jobs for the automotive industry, and good timing to roll out the Better Place plan.

I never thought of Canada and Israel as two sleeping trade giants who are more or less unaware of each other. Sure, Israelis know that Canada is that place where hockey comes from, it’s cold there, and Israeli supermarkets sell maple syrup with a little red maple leaf on it, Strubb’s pickles and Billy Bee honey mustard. Once upon a time you could even get Presidents Choice products (but not since the independent grocery chain that brought PC to Israel was swallowed up by one of the big national chains about 10 years ago).

And Canadians? Most Canucks are exposed to Israel in the news, and it’s usually dealing with some kind of strife, not as a great place to do business. Canadians think of Israel in terms of international conflict, not in terms of green products, your disk-on-key (invented in Israel), or fertilizer for agriculture.

If this is news to you, I’m guessing that you’re like most Israelis and Canadians who don’t know that the two countries signed a free trade agreement in 1997.

How much business? Well, since the agreement, trade has more than tripled to some $1.8 billion in 2008. I’ll summarize from the link: Israelis are importing the standard machinery, electrical products, paper and newsprint, plastic products, wood, and aluminium. In return, Canucks buy Israeli pharmaceuticals, high tech gear, polished diamonds, optical equipment and organic chemicals – mostly fertilizers.

In order to prod Israeli business people to look at Canada as an investment location and source for partnerships, the Canadian embassy in Tel Aviv and the Israel-Canada Chamber of Commerce hosted a trade seminar in Tel Aviv for Israeli companies interested in doing business with Canada. They expected a couple of dozen responses, but had to move the meeting from the Chamber of Commerce office to a nearby hotel where about 60 Israeli business people showed up to listen to some all-stars of Canadian business push trade with the Great White North.

The seminar was MCed by former Israeli ambassador to Canada Allan Baker, who said the Chamber wants to help Canada become more vocal in Israel. The seminar was the first in a series to educate interested Israeli companies that Canada is a target for them for everything from R & D partnerships to investment to setting up manufacturing centres in the Great White North.

Canada’s ambassador Jon Allen told the Israelis that the bilateral relationship between Israel and Canada has never been better.

“There are not enough Israeli businesspersons taking advantage of this relationship. More Canadians should be here and vice versa,” Allen said.

“We have two countries that are very compatible and should be looking at each other. We don’t always focus on the potential… and have to translate these activities into bigger numbers and more relationships,” Allen told the Israelis.

Rafi Harpaz from Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the purpose of the “seminar is to raise the public awareness that Canada is a great place to do business with, just as Israel is.”

The Canadian embassy trade team is headed by Katherine Gosselin, who discussed the various technical issues involved in trade. She pointed out that as well as a free trade agreement, there were incentives and development funds like the Canada Israel Industrial Research and Development Foundation, access to marketing data, and legal and accounting experts to help Israeli companies open offices in the Great White North.

Panel speakers included Canadian real estate magnate David Azrieli, industrialist Nathan Jacobson, and venture capitalist Sharon Lewis.

For more information on trade between Canada and Israel, read past posts: Israel opening trade office in Calgary and Canada and Israel’s business relationship continues to flourish

Today’s Earth Day – We know that billionaires with their minds and hearts in the  right place, can do right by the planet.

Taking notice, Forbes business magazine has looked beyond its regular annual billionaires list and has plucked out Israel’s banking and cruiseline heiress Shari Arison as one of the world’s greenest.

Greenest billionaires, that is.

Shari joins Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Khosla, Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and Germany’s billionaire Aloys Wobben, among others.

With a personal net worth of a cool $3.4 billion, Shari — whose eco-spriritual website Essence of Life I used to write for — may be taken for a bit of quack in Israel, but not in my books. She’s a huge believer that sustainability and profitability go hand in hand, a green prophetess in a country where bribes and scandals around real estate deals and greed emerge daily (see Holyland bribe story).

Shari’s family name is most well-known around the world for Carnival Cruiselines, established by her father Ted in the United States. She’s published a memoir Birth: When the Spiritual and the Material Come Together where she spells out how businesses should benefit both the investor and the broader community.

Good ideas are a dime a dozen. What’s she done? Shari has developed businesses around this philosophy, and maintains that the companies’ bottom line is her driver. She is now planning on making her public construction company, Shikun & Binui 100% sustainable via using solar power, water desalination and recyclable materials, within the next five years, according to Forbes.

We faithful readers of green news may already know that her water company Miya, launched in 2007 aims to reduce leaks in underground water pipes in cities and urban areas. And I just wrote a story about Brazil and Israel, and Miya looks like it will be part of the collaboration between countries.

I’m rooting for you, Shari!

If you’d like to read more about Shari’s green vision, Businessweek has a good profile on Shari from 2009.

::Forbes

The Vancouver-based company BlueOrca Tech, which specializes in helping its clients protect their digital assets while ensuring that those assets are accessible and usable, has entered in to an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) agreement with Tel Aviv-based n-Trance Global. N-Trance Global Tech Ltd is a privately held company founded in 2004 that develops, manufactures and distributes biometric software and hardware products for information security, data protection, encryption and portable solutions.

The agreement between the two companies pertains to n-Trance Global’s n-Tegrity line of products, including biometric security devices, the n-Integrity software suite and the n-Trance Global secure VOIP device.  These and other products will be marketed under the BlueOrca Tech brand in North America and in selected markets globally.

“We are pleased to enter into a strategic alliance with n-Trance.” said Gordon Hannigan, CEO of BlueOrca. “We’ve done extensive research, and n-Trance’s portfolio is the market leader. We are sure that our enterprise and government customers will see immediate benefit from using these products.”

BlueOrca will sell the portfolio direct and through resellers in Australia, Latin America, India and South East Asia.

Daniel Biran, CEO of n-Trance Global said that the two companies “share a common view on securing and using digital assets. Users need a comprehensive and easy to use solution that they can take anywhere.”

Calgary will soon be home to the Western Canada office of the Israeli government’s economic mission to Canada. “We want to give Israeli companies the chance to find Canadian partners, and vice versa,” said Amir Gissin, Israeli Consul General, in an article in the Canadian Jewish News.

The mission’s head office is located in Toronto, with another branch in Montreal, but this will be the first office in Western Canada for the mission. It’s goal is to promote trade, investment opportunities and joint ventures between the two countries.

Bilateral trade between Israel and Canada has increased and amounts to $1.5 billion, according to Jonathan Levy, Israel’s trade commissioner. “Without an on the ground presence in Western Canada it’s difficult to achieve the business results that we want to achieve,” he said. “We’re missing a lot of opportunities we can capitalize on.”

Calgary was selected as the office site because of the Calgary Economic Development Centre, and the fact that David Bronconnier, the mayor has actively promoted the city as a destination for conducting international business. Levy said the city would give Israel’s economic mission to Canada “good access to the economic organizations of the city,” and that the city of Calgary was “very eager to have us come on board.”

Here are some recent Canada-Israel business news and notes:

• Alex Schneider, Gil Blutrich and a group of other Israeli investors have bought Toronto’s famous King Edward hotel for $48 million and plan an extensive renovation on the property.
• Nathan Jacobson (through IFG Security, headed by Danny Arditi) will advise the Canadian company Celestica on buying Israeli companies.  Experts estimate $500 million annually in security-related business from this relationship.
• Kodak has moved its R&D office from Vancouver to Petah Tikva, in central Israel.  This makes the Israeli office Kodak’s second largest in the world after the United States.
• Canadian fertliizer giant Potash Corporation, the world’s largest fertilizer company, bought an additional 1.5 percent of Israel Chemicals.  It now owns 14 percent of the company.
• Air Canada will start using Elbit’s anti-hijacking warning technology.  The “Code Positive” hi-tech card technology provides each pilot with a code that identifies that pilot and plane as friendly, before the aircraft is given permission to land in Israel.
• CIIRDF (Canada-Israel Industrial Research and Development Foundation) has been renewed for another five years at $8 million Canadian.  $3.2 million of that is new funding. 

Next month Canada Post and the Israel Philatelic Service are issuing an international rate commemorative stamp to celebrate the strong bilateral relationship between the two countries, whose friendship began 60 years ago.

This is the first joint issue between the Israeli and Canadian postal administrations, and it will depict the maple leaf and the Star of David in red and blue respectively, each symbol comprised of people standing side by side.

The stamp was designed by Toronto-based q30 design and was intended to communicate the “rich topic of diplomacy between two nations,” according to designer Karen Henricks. Yaron Razon, director of the IPS, said that stamps are ‘paper ambassadors’ that spread the message of their country on letters around the world. “What could be a more symbolic and fitting way to express 60 years of cooperation and friendship between Israel and Canada than a joint stamp issue – the merging of each country’s paper ambassadors?” he asked.

Jim Phillips, director of Stamp Services at Canada Post agreed, saying this joint issue is “a form of diplomacy between postal administrations, providing great opportunities to share with and learn from one another.”

The stamp will launch in Canada on April 14 and will be available in a booklet of 6 stamps. There will be 660,000 stamps issued, each one worth $1.70.

As a kid who grew up in Canada with natural gas heating, cooking and a natural gas clothes dryer, it’s great news to see that a Canadian company, the Bontan Oil and Gas Company, based in Toronto, has found what could be up to $6 billion dollars worth of natural gas off the coast of Israel. This could mean even cleaner energy for Israel which has no formal diplomatic relations with its Arab neighbours who own oil.

The Jerusalem Post reports that the Canadian company had been exploring for natural gas off the coast of Israel, and announced yesterday that it had located what appears to be up to 6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas off Israel’s coast in two separate sites.

Worth up to $6 billion, a press release on the company’s website announced that it “will have an indirect 71.625% interest in these prospects via its 75% equity interest in the Israel Petroleum Company which has acquired a 95.5% interest in the drilling licenses as well as an adjoining exploration permit from the current operator subject to approval by the Government of Israel.”

The two gas fields called the “Mira” and “Sarah” prospects are located just south of the Tamar and Dalit gas fields, where Delek Group Ltd and its partners, Noble Energy Inc, Isramco Ltd, and more located natural gas fields last year, with an estimated worth up to $40 billion. The new finds are in adjoining 154-square mile blocks found 50-100 kilometers from the Netanya-Hadera coast. The above picture illustrates where the original fields found last year are located.

The Chapman Petroleum Engineering company conducted a survey and this is what they found: “Based on our analysis, after consideration of risk, we have concluded that the potential of these prospects is of sufficient merit to justify the work program being proposed, and we therefore recommend and support the Company’s participation.”

Image via Energy Tribune