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For more than two decades, Israeli companies have established a substantial economic presence in the western Balkans through acquisitions and long-term investments in real estate, energy, industry and services. Concentrated primarily in Serbia, their activities have since expanded into neighbouring countries.
These assets and projects are worth billions of euros and include both established investments and developments still under way. Their varying ownership stakes and funding sources raise questions about the actual scale of Israeli capital in the region and how its interests are distributed across countries and sectors.
Noon Post is publishing this report as part of its series “The Israeli corridor in the Balkans”, which traces Tel Aviv’s expansion in the western Balkans through arms, technology, finance, energy, tourism and political ties. It examines how these sectors are forming a web of interests linking Israel to countries across the region.
Real estate and shopping centres
Big Shopping Centers, listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, leads Israeli real estate investment in the western Balkans through its subsidiary BIG CEE. The subsidiary manages 18 property assets in Serbia and two in Montenegro, including shopping centres, mixed-use complexes, offices and properties earmarked for development.
One of its largest deals came in October 2024, when it acquired the Promenada shopping centre in Novi Sad, northern Serbia, for €177 million, according to a disclosure by the seller, European real estate company NEPI Rockcastle. The centre was subsequently renamed BIG Fashion Novi Sad.
Earlier acquisitions included Kragujevac Plaza and Kruševac Retail Park for about €61 million, and Aviv Park in Pančevo for about €39 million.
The acquisitions also included Belgrade Plaza, which property developer Plaza Centers transferred to BIG in 2017. Disclosures by the seller showed that it received payments totalling €47.05 million after the deduction of a bank loan of about €15.4 million.
The expansion continued in 2025 with the opening of three shopping centres in Čačak, Šabac and Bor, representing a total investment of about €60 million, according to the company’s chief executive, Lev Weiss.
The group also received financing from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which provided a loan of up to €72 million in 2025 as part of a €100 million financing package to acquire and develop shopping centres and refinance some assets.
A report by global property consultancy CBRE, published on 2 July 2026, highlighted the appeal of the Serbian market. It said open-air retail parks had become the main driver of growth in the sector, with more than 93,000 square metres under construction across the country.
The report estimated the benchmark property yield for these complexes at about 7.5 per cent, compared with 8.25 per cent for major shopping centres in Belgrade, amid continued demand for retail space and expansion into cities outside the capital.
BIG is also active in office and residential property through AFI Properties. Shareholder data updated on 23 October 2026 showed that BIG held about 79.08 per cent of the company, compared with about 79.9 per cent at the end of June that year.
AFI Properties’ Serbian portfolio includes the Airport City Belgrade business complex, with a book value of about 1.39 billion shekels ($1 equals three shekels). It also includes the Business Garden office complex, the AFI Skyline mixed-use project, and the Roda Mega and Zmaj properties.
The combined book value of these five assets was about 2.1 billion shekels, or roughly €616 million, according to the company’s financial report for the first half of 2026.
The company is developing additional buildings at Airport City. In May 2026, its European arm also acquired a company owning 75,000 square metres of land in Belgrade for about €25 million, to develop a residential project with a planned built-up area of 164,000 square metres.
Other Israeli companies are active in the Serbian market, notably construction and property development group Shikun & Binui. It developed residential complexes in Belgrade, including Central Garden and Voždove Kapije, followed by the Wellport project in New Belgrade, with a declared investment of €130 million to build about 500 homes.
Property developer Landmark has also been linked to major residential projects, including Kneza Miloša Residence, valued at an estimated €205 million. Israeli construction and property group Ashtrom invested €80 million in building the Rajićeva shopping centre in central Belgrade, which opened in September 2017, according to the Serbian government.
In Montenegro, BIG entered the market in 2022 by purchasing the Delta City shopping centre in the capital, Podgorica, for €95 million. It subsequently expanded into Capital Plaza, which includes offices, retail space and a hotel, alongside other property acquisitions.
At an investment forum in October 2026, the group’s chairman, Eitan Bar Ze’ev, said the company had invested about €160 million in Montenegro since entering the market and intended to invest a further €140 million over three years. Its plans include expanding the BIG Fashion centre in Podgorica and building a retail complex in Nikšić, scheduled to open in spring 2028. This would bring its targeted investment in Montenegro to about €300 million.
In Albania, BIG partnered with Balfin Group, one of the country’s leading investment groups, with interests in trade, property and financial services, to develop shopping centres through a jointly owned company registered in Hungary.
Albania’s competition authority approved joint control of the Retail Park Shkodra project in the north of the country on 25 July 2025, without disclosing the investment value or the partners’ precise stakes.
Energy and electricity
Israeli investment in renewable energy is led by Enlight Renewable Energy, which specialises in developing and operating wind and solar power plants, and Nofar Energy, which is active in solar power and electricity storage. The BIG Mega platform, linked to property group BIG, is also involved in the sector.
In Serbia, Enlight operates the Kovačica wind farm, which began operating in 2019 with a capacity of about 104.5 megawatts and cost €189 million. It subsequently expanded its investments with the neighbouring Pupin wind farm, officially inaugurated on 16 October 2026, with an investment of €140 million and a capacity of about 94.5 megawatts.
Pupin has 16 turbines and is expected to generate about 220 gigawatt-hours annually. Enlight developed it in cooperation with Serbian energy company New Energy Solutions, with joint financing from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Austria’s Erste Group totalling about €91.4 million.
Enlight’s disclosures to the US Securities and Exchange Commission during 2026 show that it owns 50 per cent of Kovačica and 100 per cent of Pupin. The construction costs of both plants include investor contributions and bank financing.
The company is also active in Kosovo through the Selac wind farm, also known as Bajgora, in the Mitrovica area in the north of the country. The plant has a capacity of 105 megawatts and cost about €157 million.
It began operating in 2022 and has 27 wind turbines. Enlight owns 60 per cent of the project alongside European and local partners. In 2019, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development provided a €58 million loan to help finance it as part of a package involving other banks.
The combined cost of the three plants linked to Enlight in Serbia and Kosovo is about €486 million, with a generating capacity of roughly 304 megawatts. The Israeli company’s ownership stake varies between projects.
Nofar Energy entered the Serbian market through two solar plants in the Ada area in the north of the country. They were connected to the electricity grid in the first quarter of 2025, with a total investment of about €25 million and a capacity of about 27 megawatts.
The Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Industry confirmed on 19 March 2025 that the project had begun operating. The company’s disclosures for the first half of 2026 showed that the two plants remained operational, with a combined capacity of 26.6 megawatts.
Matteo Colangeli, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s regional director for the western Balkans, links the appeal of Serbia’s renewable energy sector to competition among investors and electricity procurement mechanisms.
In remarks published by the bank in 2025, he said strong interest and competitive prices in government auctions helped attract new investment and strengthen energy security. The second auction round had received 41 bids for wind and solar projects.
BIG is also active in electricity through the BIG Mega platform, in partnership with Israeli property and energy investment company Mega Or. Its Serbian activities include rooftop solar plants on some shopping centres in Novi Sad, with declared capacities of 1.22 megawatts and 535 kilowatts.
In North Macedonia, the group announced in 2022 that it had acquired development rights for a solar project near the eastern city of Probištip. The project had a planned capacity of 70 megawatts and an estimated value of €53 million, with the possibility of increasing capacity to 105 megawatts.
Specialist publication Balkan Green Energy News reported on 16 August 2022 that the project comprised two solar plants, with expected annual output of about 114 gigawatt-hours at its base capacity. It remained under development through October 2026.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, BIG Group has been linked to the Planik solar and wind project near Bileća, in Republika Srpska, one of the country’s two constituent political entities.
An announcement in October 2022 said BIG Energia Holdings, registered in Hungary and linked to the Israeli group, had won the right to develop the project on state-owned land in partnership with Mega Or and local investors.
In December 2022, the local company signed two concession agreements to build two solar and wind power plants with a combined capacity of 116 megawatts and an estimated cost of about €122 million.
In Mostar, Bosnia, Israeli group M.T. Abraham, which operates the Aluminij industrial complex, announced plans in 2022 to invest about €32 million in solar energy to supply industrial facilities with electricity and reduce production costs.
Industry and road transport
The Aluminij complex in the southern city of Mostar is the most prominent Israeli industrial interest in Bosnia and Herzegovina. One of Bosnia’s most important aluminium facilities, it became the focus of M.T. Abraham Group’s efforts in 2020 to restart production after a financial crisis at the plant. The group is headed by Israeli businessman Amir Gross Kabiri.
The group owns 95 per cent of the operating company, Aluminij Industries. Austria’s Hammerer Aluminium Industries, which specialises in aluminium manufacturing, owns the remaining 5 per cent, according to the company’s 2026 data.
Azrudin Husika, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Sarajevo, believes the Austrian partner’s involvement in Aluminij could support the expansion of aluminium recycling, which requires less energy than primary production and creates opportunities to develop local industries. But on 10 March 2026, he warned that the relevant institutions had limited oversight capacity, stressing the importance of monitoring compliance with environmental requirements at major industrial projects.
The company operates the production facilities under a lease agreement with the entity that owns the plant’s assets. In August 2025, the group announced that it had extended the lease by a further 10 years. It said it had invested in upgrading equipment and technology and restoring production lines, and that the facility had produced about 400,000 tonnes of low-carbon aluminium products over five years.
The plant’s operations are tied to international supply chains involving metals groups Glencore and Hydro Aluminium. The group has not disclosed its total investment since taking over operations.
In Serbia, Israeli group Bet Shemesh Engines, which specialises in manufacturing aircraft engine components, owns the Livnica Preciznih Odlivaka plant, known as LPO, in the northern town of Ada.
The group acquired the plant in 2003 and opened an additional production facility in 2014, before expanding its manufacturing and machining lines in 2019 and 2020.
The plant specialises in producing precision castings and parts for jet engines and employs more than 200 workers. In September 2014, the Serbian government said its production served export markets, particularly Germany, the US and the Netherlands.
In the military sector, former Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić announced on 17 September 2026 the opening of a factory to assemble Israeli-designed drones in cooperation with Elbit Systems, one of Israel’s largest arms manufacturers.
Vučić said the factory would employ about 100 workers and that there were plans to establish three more factories with Israeli partners, with the aim of meeting the Serbian army’s needs and developing production for export.
An investigation published by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) on 20 September 2026 revealed that the factory is in the Makiš area near Belgrade. It operates inside a facility belonging to SDS Technologies, registered in the name of a British company majority-owned by a Greek investor.
The investigation also revealed that Israeli lawyer Zion Amir, who defended outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had been appointed as one of the company’s directors. The registered ownership structure differed from earlier statements describing an equal Serbian-Israeli partnership. Neither the cost of establishing the factory nor Elbit’s direct capital stake was disclosed.
Israeli activity in Serbia also extends to road transport through Kavim Group, an Israeli passenger transport company. It entered the Serbian market in the first decade of the millennium through the privatisation and acquisition of local transport companies.
Kavim Jedinstvo, based in the southern Serbian city of Vranje, says its ownership was transferred to the Israeli group on 26 December 2007 and that it operates more than 100 buses and employs about 250 people.
The group’s investments include Autoprevoz in Čačak and transport operations in Raška and Novi Pazar. In 2025, two companies affiliated with the local Sandžaktrans group merged into Autoprevoz.
Autoprevoz’s data show that it is owned by Israel’s Kavim Public Transportation International and that its revenue reached about 1.67 billion Serbian dinars in 2025, with 336 employees. This figure represents the company’s annual revenue, rather than the capital value of the group’s investments in transport.
Banking and technology
Albania emerged in 2025 and 2026 as a destination for new Israeli investment in banking and technology, particularly following the establishment of JET Bank in July 2025. The bank received initial licensing approval in December that year and final authorisation from Albania’s central bank on 25 March 2026, ahead of the launch of digital banking services.
Albania’s commercial registry shows that the bank is owned by Dutch company JET Holdings and that its registered capital rose to 2.465 billion Albanian lek in August 2026.
British investor Aidan Avishai indirectly owns 71.52 per cent of the parent company. The remaining roughly 28.5 per cent is distributed among five companies registered in Israel. The most prominent is Israel Albania Holdings, with a 12.4 per cent stake, linked to Israeli-Albanian businessman Sani Sanilevich, Albania’s honorary consul in Tel Aviv.
Elvin Meka, vice-president of the University of Tirana Business College and dean of its Faculty of Business and Law, believes digital banks have an opportunity to expand in Albania, where cash transactions remain prevalent. They could reach people who make limited use of banks and bring more activity into the formal financial system.
But in remarks published by European news website Euractiv on 11 September 2026, he pointed to challenges involving trust, digital literacy and a shortage of cybersecurity and data analysis specialists.
In the data centre sector, a prominent development is the Albania Data Center project near the capital, Tirana. Its estimated investment cost is €100 million, with an initial electrical capacity of 32 megawatts and the possibility of expansion to 100 megawatts.
Israeli business newspaper Globes reported on 3 February 2026 that Happy Technologies owns 80 per cent of the project and DIT Technical Consulting owns 20 per cent. Both companies are linked to Israeli investors. The newspaper said the project aimed to provide data storage and computing services to public- and private-sector clients, including an Albanian government entity.
In military technology cooperation, the Albanian government opened the National Aviation School in Vlora on 3 July 2026, with technical participation from Elbit Systems. This followed a cooperation agreement signed in 2025 between Elbit and Albania’s state-owned defence industries company, KAYO. At the opening ceremony, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama praised the Israeli company’s contribution of technology and training expertise.
Israeli involvement in Albanian agriculture includes Yeesh Albania, a seed production company that began operating in the Lushnjë area in 2017 before expanding to Divjakë, Durrës, Fushë-Krujë and Fier.
In its official account of bilateral economic relations, the Albanian Embassy in Israel estimates the investment at about €2 million. It also cites cooperation with Israeli companies in data protection and the monitoring of electricity networks and meters, without specifying the capital value of these projects.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, M.T. Abraham Group is developing Noverix, a project for data centres, cloud computing and artificial intelligence in the industrial zone of the Aluminij complex in Mostar. The project draws on the site’s electricity and industrial infrastructure.
The project covers about 1.5 million square metres, with 450,000 square metres allocated to development zones and a targeted electrical capacity ranging from 50 to more than 200 megawatts.
On 27 September 2026, the group confirmed that technical studies, licensing procedures and preparations were continuing. The final investment cost and construction start date remained undetermined.
Long-term investments give Israeli companies enduring interests in the economies of the western Balkans. As their asset holdings, energy contracts and local partnerships expand, economic ties carry increasing weight in relations between Tel Aviv and the region’s governments.