The leading European stock exchanges saw declines of up to 3%, and red screens were also observed on Wall Street in the first trading hours with declines of up to 2%. The Americans, however, draw encouragement from a new $ 900 billion aid program, after a long stalemate in talks between Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
According to various medical experts from Israel and around the world, Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines are expected to be resistant to what is defined as a “mutation”, but the government has not taken any risks and defined all countries in the world as red – meaning anyone returning , The malls and retail spaces may also close, shortly after they open.
Bad news in the real estate industry as well: The real estate index, which has fallen by about 10% since the beginning of the year, lost more than another 3% yesterday. Apart from the reports of the mutation, the industry suffered another blow, with data from the Central Bureau of Statistics showing a seven-year low in the number of construction starts in the country. According to the data, since the beginning of the year, less than 36,000 new apartments have begun to be built – a rate that reflects a decrease of 9% compared to 2019 – before the Corona appeared. As mentioned, this is the lowest volume of construction starts since 2013. The technology index recorded a more moderate decline, of 1.09%.
IVC and Meitar’s high-tech report is published today, which shows that 2020 was a record year for recruitment, but a low in exits. 578 transactions were recorded with a total investment of about $ 9.9 billion. This is a growth of 14% in the number of transactions from last year and 27% In the capital invested.
This year also saw a record capital raising for Israeli technology companies traded on the stock exchange: 121 companies raised $ 6.55 billion in 2020, compared to 68 companies that raised $ 1.95 billion in 2019. As mentioned, 2020 ends with a sharp decline in mergers and acquisitions: only $ 7.8 billion (in 93 transactions) compared to $ 14.24 billion (in 143 transactions) in 2019 (excluding transactions of more than $ 5 billion).
According to the authors of the report, Shira Ezran, Mike Rimon and Itai Frishman – partners in the Meitar 0 firm “The number of recruitments of companies in growth stages has increased significantly, as has the total amount of recruitments, This is reflected, among other things, in the increase in the number of companies that have crossed the value of the billion dollars (Unicorn; HC) “.
Guy Holtzman, CEO of IVC, stated: “We believe that after a challenging but successful year for Israeli start-ups, Israeli high-tech will continue to be a source of attraction for international, financial and strategic players.”