Alstom sells 20% stake in Jerusalem light rail to Harel Insurance and Israel Infrastructure Fund

Subscribe to our newsletter and get the latest news and business opportunities in your inbox
Alstom sells 20% stake in Jerusalem light rail to Harel Insurance and Israel Infrastructure Fund

Alstom SA has sold its 20% stake in Jerusalem light rail franchisee CityPass Ltd. to Israel Infrastructure Fund (IIF), which owns 10% of the franchisee, and Harel Insurance Investments and Financial Services Ltd., which owns 20%, for NIS 30 million.

After the sale, the shareholding composition is the following: IIF owns 20% of CityPass and Harel owns 30%. Ashtrom Properties Ltd. owns 27.5%, Polar Investments Ltd. owns 17.5%, and France's Veolia Transport SA owns 5%.

Yehuda Shoshani (CityPass CEO of the past three years) will step down on September 1, and will be succeeded by Israel Railways VP, Yaron Ravid.

The project:

The Jerusalem Light Rail  is a light rail line, the first of several rapid transit lines planned in Jerusalem. Construction began in 2002 and ended in 2010, when the testing phase began.

It was built by the CityPass consortium, which has a 30-year concession to operate it. Construction also involved building the Jerusalem Chords Bridge and various renovation projects around the city.

After repeated delays due to archaeological findings and other issues, service began, initially free of charge, on August 19, 2011. It became fully operative on December 1, 2011. The line is 13.9 kilometers (8.6 mi) long with 23 stops. Extensions are planned to the north to Neve Yaakov and to Hadassag Ein Kerem Hospital in the southwest. When completed, these will extend the line's length to 22.5 km.

Share this news

Join us

In order to get full access to News section, you must have a full subscription. You can check all the benefits of becoming a member and purchase a subscription on our membership page.