Israel's Housing and Construction eyes Solel-paper

TEL AVIV, July 13 (Reuters) - Housing and Construction HUCN.TA, Israel's largest construction company, is seeking to acquire control of Solel Solar Systems Ltd, the Globes financial newspaper reported on Monday.

A spokesman for Solel said the company does not comment on rumours.

Officials at Housing and Construction could not be reached for comment.

Last month Israeli media reported that Germany's Siemens (SIEGn.DE) was in talks to invest about $100 million in Solel. The Calcalist newspaper had reported that the investment would be made at a company valuation of $250 million.

An industry source told Reuters at the time that several of the world's largest technology companies operating in the area of power generation had expressed interest in investing in Solel.

Globes said that while Housing and Construction is in advanced talks, Siemens has still not given up on buying Solel.

Solel has hired Credit Suisse to help find an investor for the company, which is controlled by Belgian fund Ecofin.

Ecofin acquired its stake in Solel in 2008 for about $125 million.

Last year, Solel won a deal to supply 190,000 solar receiver systems to Madrid-based Ibereolica Solar, a Spanish solar plant developer. The receivers will power eight 50 megawatt solar power plants Ibereolica is building in southern Spain.

That followed a contract Solel received with an unnamed Spanish group for 70,000 receivers.

Combined, the two deals were worth more than $250 million, Solel said.

(Reporting by Tova Cohen; editing by Simon Jessop)