AguAgro Fund LP has acquired water technologies incubator Kinrot Technology Ventures from Canada's Stern Partners Inc. in a share-swap deal. Stern Partners, run by president Ronald Stern, will now be a shareholder in AquAgro, through which Stern Partners will invest in more mature companies, which is its normal practice.
Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor regulations require AquAgro to inject at least $3 million into Kinrot over three years.
Stern Partners ran Kinrot for its first three since its privatization. This was a difficult time for the incubator, but it ultimately succeeding in stabilizing and now has a portfolio of ten companies, with one more in the pipeline. Kinrot also has a strategic partnership agreements with Mekorot National Water Company, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and the Milwaukee 7 Water Council.
B. Gaon Holdings Ltd. (TASE: GAON) controls AquAgro through Gaon Agro Industries Ltd. (TASE: GAT). Gaon Holdings CEO and Gaon Agro chairman Shai Preminger said, "Gaon Holdings is one of the players that, a decade ago, inscribed on its flag investment in the water and cleantech industries, through Gaon Agro. The acquisition of Kinrot turns AquAgro, which we own, into the leading Israeli investor in the water and cleantech technologies."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 18, 2010
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