Small Israeli companies are continuing their migration to Australia. Netanya-based HeraMED has filed a prospectus for raising A$6 million (NIS 15.8 million) on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) at a company valuation of A$19 million (NIS 51 million).
A dozen Israeli companies are already traded on the ASX, and more are in various stages of preparing an offering there.
HeraMED describes itself as reinventing the experience of pregnancy. The company has developed a small device for home use for monitoring fetal heartbeats. The device, called HeraBeat, is connectable to both a smartphone and the cloud in order to save and share the data with the relevant medical professionals.
The company is aiming mainly at markets in Israel, the EU, the US, and Australia. According to the prospectus, HeraMED has already obtained approval in the UK, Israel, and the EU, and has begun preparing a request for marketing approval in the US. In Israel, the company has a distribution agreement with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA; TASE: TEVA), under which Teva subsidiary Abic will have exclusivity in distribution of the product in Israel. The agreement stipulates that a minimum of $140,000 worth of devices will be distributed in the first year.
HeraMED was founded in 2011 by CEO David Groberman, a medical engineer, and COO Tal Slonim. The offering will leave Groberman with a 9.2% stake in the company. One of HeraMED's directors is former Given Imaging chairperson Doron Birger. According to figures from the IVC research company, HeraMED has raised only $3.4 million since it was founded, and currently has $1.5 million in cash.
HeraMED plans to use the money from the offering for research and development and for marketing and sales, management and general expenses, and working capital. The company also plans to repay a $205,000 loan to Meytar Engineering, a company controlled by Groberman and Slonim. The Pearl Cohen Zedek Latzer Baratz law firm and the BDO accounting firm are accompanying the offering.
HeraMED began posting revenue in the first half of 2018 - a total of $27,000, together with a $599,000 net loss. The company's net loss in 2017 was $788,000.
Fluence offers shares on the ASX
Fluence (ASX: FLC), one of the more veteran Israeli companies on the ASX, yesterday announced a A$33.1 million financing round through an offering of shares to investors, mainly in the US.
Fluence, formerly Emefcy, which was merged with an ASX stock exchange shell in late 2015, provides water and sewage solutions. Emefcy was merged into US company RWL, controlled by businessperson Ron Lauder. The merged company became Fluence, which has a A$168 million (NIS 443 million) market cap.
Lauder, Fluence's largest shareholder through RSL, also took part in the offering. Lauder said, "I am glad to see that Fluence's strategy as such a promising a leading global provider of water solutions is being reflected in strong growth in revenue from one year to the next. That was the rationale that led to the merger of RWL and Emefcy."
Fluence CEO and managing director Henry Charrabe said yesterday, "We are satisfied with this financing round in which the anchor investors are tier-1 US investment institutions. We are glad to see that existing shareholders participated in the round." Charrabe added that the money would be used for working capital for projects in China, among other things. The amount raised could increase by A$5 million, because shareholders received an option to buy more shares.
The share price in the offering was A$0.37, a 16% discount on the market price on the day before the offering. Fluence's share price fell 15.4% yesterday as a result, but rebounded 6.5% today, after the company announced a €1.7 million contract in Argentina.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 31, 2018
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