Merrill Lynch: Time to pay the piper

Least sensitive companies to credit risk: Teva, Israel Chemicals, and Delek Automotive. Globes' correspondent 17 Jul 08 17:23 Merrill Lynch is sounding a warning about accumulating credit risk by Israeli companies, especially holding companies, after the economic boom years of 2003-07. "With global concerns on inflation and the costs of credit on the rise, the market focus is shifting to the ability of companies to ride out the difficult conditions. We believe that expectations of high CPI and rising interest rates will have a marked impact on the financial performance of Israeli companies until the end of the year." The study looked at Israel's 40 largest non-financial companies. Merrill Lynch also warns that access to credit to meet re-financing is becoming increasingly difficult in the medium term as Israeli banks, burned... [read full story]