FACTBOX: Israeli firms to watch

(Reuters) - Israel at age 60 is a technology powerhouse, attracting billions of dollars in investment in innovative companies ranging from medical devices to wireless broadband communication.

But it is also home to exporters of more traditional products, such as pharmaceuticals and chemicals, some of which have benefited from just about the only natural resource Israel possesses -- the desert.

Here are some companies to watch:

-- Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Israel's biggest company with a $39 billion market value, makes lower-cost generic drugs. It has said it expects to double its revenue to $20 billion by 2012. Its drug Copaxone is the U.S. leader for treating multiple sclerosis.

-- Israel Chemicals is the second-largest company traded in Tel Aviv with a market value of $24 billion. Its share price has more than doubled in the past year on soaring demand for its potash and phosphate fertilizers, extracted from the Dead Sea and Israel's southern desert.

-- MA Industries is the world's biggest maker of generic crop protection products. Like ICL, it is benefiting from the global rise in food prices that has sent farmers scrambling to increase their output. Its controlling shareholder, Koor Industries, recently said it is in talks to sell up to half of its nearly 40 percent stake.

-- Altair Semiconductor develops microprocessors and accompanying software for the wireless broadband market, including the technology known as mobile WiMax, which is expected to take off in 2009.

-- Discretix develops embedded security technology for mobile phones and portable devices and is now entering a new market -- mobile television. It recently announced a joint mobile TV security product with France Telecom subsidiary Viaccess. Discretix, whose customers include leading semiconductor companies and device manufacturers, plans to go public on Nasdaq in the second half of 2009.

(Compiled by Tova Cohen in Tel Aviv)