Kedma Capital is entering Israel’s energy sector and is promoting a large natural-gas power plant in the Nesharim industrial zone in Ramla, on the land of Iskor Metals and Steel near the Ramla-Lod interchange. The project is being advanced before the National Infrastructure Committee after preliminary planning steps were launched in recent months, following government approval and the required sign-offs from the Energy Ministry, the Planning Administration and the Israel Land Authority. Kedma is now preparing to submit the planning documents to the committee.
The planned station is expected to generate about 900 megawatts, roughly comparable to the output of Dalia Power Station, one of Israel’s largest private power plants. Its construction is estimated at 4 billion to 5 billion shekels. If built, the existing galvanizing, metal and paint plant on the site would be shut down, though Iskor still operates other plants in Kiryat Gat, Beersheba and Acre.
The move marks Kedma’s first foray into energy. The private equity fund, led by Gilad Shavit, Uri Einan and Gilad Halevy, has mainly invested in industrial, services and infrastructure companies, including Carmel Wineries, Danal, Brand Industries, Qualitest, Keter and Alexander Schneider. Kedma, founded in 2006, currently manages about 1 billion shekels in assets.
The project fits the state’s broader effort to expand electricity generation capacity over the coming decades. A government decision at the start of the year calls for 13 new gas-fired power stations by 2040, citing rising demand from population growth, economic expansion and higher consumption by data centers and computing infrastructure. Kedma bought Iskor in 2018 for about 400 million shekels from South Africa’s Kasteel Group, which had acquired it from historic owner Koor, then controlled by the Histadrut. Kedma had previously tried to float Iskor on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in 2021 at a 1.5 billion shekel valuation, but withdrew the prospectus in early 2022 when market conditions weakened. Last May, Kedma sold 50 dunams of Iskor land in Kiryat Gat to Mega Or for 175 million shekels, and it had been in advanced talks to sell the 64-dunam Ramla site for more than 400 million shekels before shifting to the power-plant plan.
