Ampal-American Israel Corporation Completes Sale of Its Holdings of MIRS to Motorola Israel Ltd

Business Wire, Oct 3, 2005

TEL AVIV, Israel -- Ampal-American Israel Corporation (Nasdaq:AMPL) announced today that Ampal Communications L.P., a limited partnership controlled by Ampal, has completed the previously announced sale to Motorola Israel Ltd. ("Motorola") of all of its holdings of MIRS Communications Ltd. ("MIRS").

In connection with the sale of its holdings of MIRS, Ampal Communications L.P. received approximately US$89 million of total proceeds composed of US$67 million for the purchase price and an additional US$22 million related to guaranteed dividend payments and recorded a loss during the third quarter of approximately US$4.1 million. Approximately US$74 million of the proceeds was used to repay all outstanding debt to Banks incurred in connection with making the MIRS investment, and Ampal received US$11 million of net proceeds from the sale. In addition, in connection with the closing of the transaction, the existing lawsuit among the parties and others relating to MIRS has been dismissed.

Ampal Communications L.P. is a limited partnership which previously held a 33% interest in MIRS. Ampal American-Israel Corporation holds 75% of Ampal Communications L.P.

About Ampal

Ampal and its subsidiaries primarily acquire interests in businesses located in the State of Israel or that are Israel-related. Ampal has diversified interests in the following sectors: telecommunication, real estate, capital markets, leisure-time and other. For more information about Ampal please visit our web site at www.ampal.com.

Certain information in this press release includes forward-looking statements (as such term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) and information relating to the Company that are based on the beliefs of management of the Company as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to the management of the Company. When used in this press release, the words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "plan," and similar expressions as they relate to the Company or the management of the Company, identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the current views of the Company with respect to future events or future financial performance of the Company, the outcome of which is subject to certain risks and other factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by the forward-looking statements, including among others, the economic and political conditions in Israel, the Middle East, and the global business and economic conditions in the different sectors and markets where the Company's portfolio companies operate. Should any of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results or outcome may vary from those described herein as anticipated, believed, estimated, expected, intended or planned. Subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements in this paragraph. Please refer to the Company's annual, quarterly and periodic reports on file with the SEC for a more detailed discussion of these and other risks that could cause results to differ materially.