RENT A TROWBRIDGE APARTMENT
AND WELL THROW IN A CHEF,
A HOUSEKEEPER AND A DRIVER

Other Side Of

TERRORISM

Business is brisk for security-accessories
developer Magal.

KICKY BLACKBURN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

♦ DINNER SERVED NIGHTLY

♦ PROFESSIONAL.
TRANSPORTATION

♦ SPACIOUS ONE AND TWO,
BEDROOM APARTMENTS

♦ RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES
AND PROGRAMS

♦ INDEPENDENT AND ASSISI ED
LIVING

F

°Rowing TWA flight 800's
crash into the Atlantic in
July 1996, and the bomb-
ing at the Atlanta Olympics
shortly afterward, shares in Is-
raeli-based Magal Security Sys-
tems leaped from $3 to $12 in
just three days.
While shares have now fallen
to $5, it's more than likely that if
another terrorist attack happens
in the United States, share prices
would again surge upward.
Depressing though this is for
humanity, there's no doubt that
it's good news for Magal, which
manufactures two key products
in the fight to ward off terrorism
— smart perimeter fencing and
an automatic bomb detection sys-
tem, which can check up to 1,000
pieces of airline luggage an hour.
Both fields are growing rapidly.
The market for automatic
bomb detection systems is an es-
timated $1.3 billion, while in
perimeter fencing, Magal has al-
ready snapped up 40 percent of
the world's market, making it the
largest company in this niche.
As a result, Magal, which em-
ploys 107 people and saw sales
of $18 million in 1996, expects to
see sales almost double to $30
million this year. In April, ana-
lysts at Cruttenden Roth in Cal-
ifornia gave the shares a "strong
buy" recommendation.
Since its inception 27 years
ago, Magal has been in the busi-
ness of preventing terrorism. The

company was initially set up as
a subsidiary of Israel Aircraft In-
dustries (IAI), at the request of
the Israel Defense Force, in re-
sponse to a terrorist action in the
Galilee by militant activists who
burst into a kibbutz taking a
number of children hostage.
The company's first product
was a perimeter fence system, or
taut fence, which could auto-
matically detect an intruder try-
ing to cut, climb or spread the
fence to gain entry. Called DTR,
the system set off an alarm if any
changes in tension were ob-
served.
"It had to be 100 percent ac-
curate with almost zero false
alarms," said J. Even-Ezra, Ma-
gal's chairman of the board and
CEO. "On Israel's borders,
alarms were taken seriously.
People had to go to shelters. If
there were too many false
alarms, it would have been im-
possible to live in such places."
Since then, the fence, which is
Magal's main product, has been
updated and computerized. To-
day, the company is selling the
third generation of this model at
between $50-$90 per meter, and
other products in the same area,
such as detection systems for or-
dinary decorative fences, have
been added.
Even-Ezra took control in
1984, when IAI decided to pri-

TERROR page 72

THE TROWBRIDGE

24111 CIVIC CENTER DRIVE
SOUTHFIELD, MI 48034

(810) 352-0208

UP,cix oNs