Israeli exits surge to $14.5 billion in first half of 2019, report shows

Exits of Israeli firms in the first half of 2019 totaled a record $14.48 billion in 66 deals, a report by IVC Research Center and attorneys Meitar Liquornik Geva Leshem Tal shows.

The data includes one “mega-deal,” the sale of Mellanox Technologies Ltd. to Nvidia for $6.9 billion. Excluding the Mellanox deal, the total value of exit deals (including initial public offerings of Israeli firms and merger and acquisition activities and buyouts) stands at $7.58 billion in the first half of the year, the highest amount for a first half-year in the last five years.

Despite a slight decrease in the number of exit deals to 66 in the first half of the year from 73 exits in the first half of 2018, the total exit value in dollar terms was significantly higher, jumping to $14.48 billion H1/2019 from $6.49 billion in H1/2018.

The average exit value in H1/2019 also set a five-year record, reaching $116.6 million.

Four initial public offerings were completed in H1/2019, with two companies, Fiverr and Tufin, listing their shares for trade and raising $110 million and $108 million, respectively, on the New York Stock Exchange.

These “two successful IPOs in the US are likely to generate interest among more Israeli companies that will want to examine initial public offerings as a path to exit and liquidity,” said Itay Frishman, a partner at attorneys Meitar Liquornik Geva Leshem Tal, in a statement.

Among the other notable exits in the first half of this year, besides Mellanox, which is still to be completed, are Dynamic Yield Ltd, acquired by McDonald’s for $300 million, and Demisto, bought by Palo Alto Networks for $560 million.

In H1/2019, the number of deals between $100 million and $1 billion climbed to a record 23, compared with seven deals in the first half of 2018 and 18 deals for the full year 2018, the report said.