Israel to privatize El Al on June 10 JERUSALEM (Reuters) =97 The Israeli Finance Ministry said on Sunday it plans= =20 to sell its stake in El Al Israel Airlines at a company value of $113=20 million on June 10. The much-talked-about and long-delayed flotation of the= =20 national carrier on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange received the go ahead after= =20 a Tel Aviv court rejected a petition from El Al employees on Friday. A=20 ministry spokeswoman said the government will sell its 97% stake by issuing= =20 stock and options, which will take time to be exercised. For the next 18=20 months, the state and El Al employees will keep 50.00001% of the airline's= =20 shares. "We are selling the whole thing right now but there will be options= =20 so it will take time until the public owns 100%," said a spokeswoman for=20 the Government Companies Authority (GCA), the agency in charge of=20 privatization. She noted that employees will be able to buy 10 to 15% of=20 the airline. Eyal Gabbay, head of the GCA, has already left Israel to encourage=20 institutional investors to buy into the carrier, which has some $900=20 million in debt. El Al, which Israeli newspapers, citing underwriters,=20 value at as much as $80 million, posted a net loss of $23.7 million in 2002= =20 and a loss of $85.2 million in 2001. It recorded a loss of $33.5 million in= =20 the first quarter due to low demand during the Iraq war. El Al has=20 struggled financially, largely due to a steep drop in tourism to Israel=20 during the past 32 months of bloody conflict with the Palestinians, but the= =20 airline is regarded as having the tightest security of any carrier in the=20 world. At present, El Al does not fly on the Jewish Sabbath =97 a 25-hour=20 period beginning at sundown on Friday. Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu= =20 has said he will not stop the new owners from flying on the Sabbath =97 a=20 move that would likely irk religious customers. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.natalielaughlin.com/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************