Private equity firm FIMI Opportunity Funds, led by Ishay Davidi, has exited a successful investment in Orbit Technologies (TASE: ORBI), which produces communications systems for the civilian and military markets. Orbit has announced that it will be acquired by San Diego-based Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq: KTOS) for $356.3 million. FIMI invested $15 million in Orbit in 2018, and, including dividends received over the years and the sale proceeds, its total income from the company is $136 million, nine times its investment.
The deal represents a return to business as usual for FIMI. In the past two years or so, the firm has realized investments, but the focus was on sales to local players, such as the sale of Infinya (Hadera Paper) to Gil Agmon’s Veridis.
The current sale is a different story. Kratos, headed by Eric DeMarco, is a US defense company with a market cap of $15 billion. It is buying outright a thoroughly Israeli company with innovative developments in satellite communications, which would not have happened had it thought that there was a danger of war that could harm its business.
For FIMI, this is its 76th exit. In the past two and a half years it has realized investments in companies amounting to $752 million and will receive $3.1 billion for its stakes in them. $1.8 billion has already been received, and a further $1.2 billion will be due to it when transactions are completed, among them the flotation of nursing care network Amal on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
FIMI currently has 33 companies in its portfolio. It recently invested in Benny Landa’s Landa Digital Printing in the context of a debt settlement in the company.
Orbit was founded in 1959 and has been publicly traded since 1988. FIMI made a series of investments in the company, replaced its management, and gradually changed its business strategy. It brought Orbit into military communications several years before the outbreak of the recent wars.
Orbit has some 270 active customers around the world. It produces sound systems for aircraft, satellite communications systems for moving and stationary platforms, and observation systems from space. At the end of the first half year, it had an orders backlog of $134 million, a record for the company. In the second quarter, it had revenue of $20 million and an operating profit of $3.8 million, both figures higher by double-digit percentages than in the corresponding period of 2024. Besides FIMI (22.5%), the shareholders in Orbit include More Investment House (20.2%), The Phoenix Holdings (5.4%), and Meitav (9.5%). Before the deal, the public held 42.4% of the company.
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Kratos is buying Orbit at a share price of $13.73, representing a premium of 21% on the market price.
Kratos’s announcement of the deal states: “Orbit will report through Kratos’ Microwave Electronics Division (KMED), which is headquartered in Jerusalem, Israel. The acquisition of Orbit is expected to be immediately accretive across virtually every financial metric for Kratos.”
Kratos was represented in the transaction by Adv. David Osborne and Adv. Shiri Shaham of Arnon, Tadmor-Levy. Orbit was represented by Adv. Sharon Amir and Adv. Meital Zimberg-Lederman of Naschitz Brandes Amir.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on November 5, 2025.
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