Ampal-American Israel Corporation Reported Today Its Financial Results for the Year Ended December 31, 2009

TEL AVIV, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ampal-American Israel Corporation (Nasdaq:AMPL), a holding company in the business of acquiring and managing interests in various businesses, with emphasis in recent years on energy, chemicals, communications and related fields, reported today its financial results for the year ended December 31, 2009.

For the year ended December 31, 2009, Ampal recorded a consolidated net loss of $(20.8) million, or $(0.37) per diluted share, and revenues of $405.5 million, as compared to a net loss of $(16.7) million, or $(0.29), and revenues of $558.0 million for the same period in 2008.

Ampal ended the year with total assets of $920.6 million and shareholders' equity of $222.0 million, as compared to $935.9 million and $240.1 million, respectively at December 31, 2008.

For the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2009, Ampal reported a consolidated net loss of $(1.8) million, or $(0.03) per diluted share, and revenues of $82.2 million, as compared to a net income of $23.6 million, or $0.39 per diluted share, and revenues of $130.1 million for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2008.

	Year Ended December 31,		Three Months Ended December 31,
	2009	2008	2009	2008
Revenues	$405,485	$558,046	$82,210	$130,067
Net gain (loss)	($20,802)	($16,711)	($1,761)	$23,576
Basic EPS gain (loss) per Class A share	($0.37)	($0.29)	($0.03)	$0.41
	December 31, 2009		December 31, 2008
Total Assets	$920,600		$935,917
Shareholders' Equity	$221,995		$240,095

About Ampal:

Ampal and its subsidiaries acquire interests primarily in businesses located in the State of Israel or that are Israel-related. Ampal is seeking opportunistic situations in a variety of industries, with a focus on energy, chemicals, communication and related sectors. Ampal’s goal is to develop or acquire majority interests in businesses that are profitable and generate significant free cash flow that Ampal can control. For more information about Ampal please visit our web site at www.ampal.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

Certain information in this press release includes forward-looking statements (within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) and information relating to Ampal that are based on the beliefs of management of Ampal as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to the management of Ampal. When used in this press release, the words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "plan," and similar expressions as they relate to Ampal or Ampal's management, identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the current views of Ampal with respect to future events or future financial performance of Ampal, 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, including the situation in Iraq, and the global business and economic conditions in the different sectors and markets where Ampal'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 Ampal or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements in this paragraph. Please refer to Ampal'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. Ampal assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements.