BRIEF: Elbit Medical enters financial sector: The real estate company has set up joint venture with Clal Insurance in Eastern Europe.

Jul 02, 2008 (Globes - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- EMITF | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Elbit Medical Imaging Ltd. (Nasdaq: EMITF; TASE: EMIT) and Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd. (TASE: CLIS) have set up a strategic joint insurance venture in Eastern Europe.

Elbit Medical subsidiary Elbit Ultrasound (Netherlands) BV will acquire half of Clal Insurance Dutch subsidiary CIE. Holdings BV for $17.8 million, matching Clal Insurance investment in CIE. CIE will be the vehicle for the venture, which will initially target Romania, where CIE already owns an insurance company, SC Clal Romania Asigurari-Resigurari SA.

Elbit Medical chairman Mordecha Zisser said, "We have been closely monitoring the development of the Eastern Europe countries during the last decade. At the same time, we were exposed to the activity in the financial markets and we have evidenced that those activities have a high profitability potential, such as in the activities in which we operated. After analyzing the evolvement of these economies, we have reached the conclusion that there is a tremendous potential for growth in the Eastern Europe financial markets, and in particular in the insurance market."

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