When Warren Buffett invested $4 billion in Berkshire Hathaway's first investment overseas, he didn't know a war was about to break out near his investment.

Iscar Metalworking is a privately held company in which Buffett acquired 80%. It is situated in Tefen, a beautiful industrial park in the Galilee just a few miles south of the Lebanese border. The industrial park, built by the Wertheimer family, is unique in its aesthetics and employs people from all over northern Israel. I visited the park itself on several occasions just to tour the beautiful surroundings, the sculpture garden, and the open museum.

However,when the Israeli-Lebanese war broke out, Iscar had to close shop for a few days until the cease-fire was declared. Buffett, who bought the 80% stake in the plant sight unseen and sealed the deal only a week before the war broke out, finally went to see his new purchase yesterday. While Buffett acknowledges he had concerns during the war he doesn't regret the investment, saying that "most of the time Israel is no more dangerous than the U.S."

Iscar's financials are closely guarded but sources estimate the company's net income last year was $440 million on revenues of $1.4 billion. Stef Wertheimer, a self educated, self-made man, started Iscar as a backyard metalworking business. Growing and expanding over the years the company now has 60 subsidiaries worldwide making precision carbide tools for the automotive and aerospace industries, among others.

After mostly dealing with the son, Warren Buffett has also finally got to meet the father, Stef Wertheimer. I could be wrong about this, but I would assume that the family values and the personalities were a match that helped facilitate this deal. Especially in light of the Wertheimer family's commitment to promoting Middle East peace through industrial parks modeled after Tefen.

Buffett's investment in Israel isn't unique as many American and international companies invest in Israel. However, Israel is more well known for its tech sector and for its innovative start-ups that get picked up by larger companies often, with Lucent acquiring start-up Mobilitec just last week. R&D and manufacturing facilities opened by Microsoft and Intel are other examples of investments in Israel's tech sector.

Buffett finally visits investment in Israel originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 19 Sep 2006 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.