Business in Brief: March 30

Hapoalim rises on Deutsche’s ‘Buy’; Barniv leads list of best-paid women; Major US airport to deploy NICE video.

By GLOBES
Hapoalim rises on Deutsche’s ‘Buy’
Bank Hapoalim Ltd. climbed to the highest level in more than two months after Deutsche Bank AG raised Israel’s second-largest lender by assets to “buy” from “hold” as interest rates and yields increase.
The shares jumped 2.3 percent to NIS 17.90 at the 4:30 p.m. close in Tel Aviv, the highest since Jan. 20.
“Hapoalim is the most asset-sensitive of the Israeli banks and has positioned its balance sheet to profit from a higher rate and yield environment,” Dan Harverd, an analyst at Deutsche Bank, wrote in a report published Tuesday.
Deutsche Bank raised its 12-month share-price estimate to NIS 20 per share from NIS 19.5. (Bloomberg)
Barniv leads list of best-paid women • By Avi Shauly Shikun
U’Binui Holdings Ltd. chairwoman Ravit Barniv earned NIS 8.9 million in 2010, including a base salary of NIS 1.9 million, NIS 1.6 million in stock-based compensation and a NIS 5.5 million bonus. The figure makes her the top paid woman executive among the companies that have published the financial reports to date.
Shikun U’Binui controlling shareholder Shari Arison appointed Barniv as chairwoman in June 2007 in order to set the real estate and infrastructures contracting company’s strategy. The strategy included the sale of loss-making operations and refocusing on core businesses. Barniv is eligible to a bonus equaling 1% of Shikun U’Binui net profit.
2010 is the third year that Barniv has been one of Israel’s top-paid executives. She made NIS 7.2 million in 2009, NIS 8.4 million in 2008, and NIS 3.8 million in the second half of 2007.

Major US airport to deploy NICE video • By Globes correspondent
NICE Systems Ltd. said Tuesday that Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport has placed a multi-million dollar order to expand its current NICE video surveillance system.
The airport will deploy NICE’s IP video surveillance solution and the NICE Inform incident information management solution. The expansion is part of a strategic modernization initiative to strengthen security, threat detection, and emergency response and risk mitigation capabilities. The NICE solutions will address the airport's growing security requirements while providing a foundation for the airport to migrate to IP video surveillance.
When the project is complete, Dallas/Fort Worth will be able to centrally monitor, record and manage all IP and analog cameras seamlessly in one system.
The airport will also be expanding its audio recording capabilities, adding the NICE Inform multimedia solution which enables authentic incident reconstruction through synchronization of voice recordings and video.


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