The opening of trading in shares of Maytronics (TASE: MTRN), controlled by Kibbutz Yizre’el (56%), was delayed this morning after the company notified the market of "initial contact only" on investment in the company, which produces pool cleaning robots, by private equity firm FIMI Opportunity Funds. The firm has been given a short exclusivity period.
Maytronics did not disclose what stake FIMI would take and how much it would invest in the event of a deal. Since the firm always acquires control of its portfolio companies, it can be assumed that if a deal does take place it will involve a substantial holding.
Following the notice of the contact with FIMI, Maytronics' share price is up by more than 40%.
Other investment funds with which "Globes" spoke said that they had held talks with Maytronics on investment at the market price, but that they did not wish to proceed and did not see potential for enhancing the company’s value.
Maytronics states that the talks with FIMI are "part of business plans that the company’s management has adopted, various possibilities for strengthening it financially, among them raising capital and/or a streamlining program."
Maytronics has lost almost all of its value in the past few years. At this morning's opening, the company had a market cap of just NIS 187 million.
At its peak, Maytronics had more than half pf the global pool cleaning equipment market. During the Covid pandemic, when lockdowns forcing people to stay at home led to a global jump in purchases of pool cleaning robots, it reached a market cap of NIS 9.1 billion. Its revenue and profit margins grew.
At that time, it was worth about NIS 17 million to each of Kibbutz Yizre’el’s 300 members. Now, the aggregate value of the company to the kibbutz members is about NIS 100 million, or about NIS 300,000 each.
As the pandemic receded, the company’s distributors were left with high unsold stocks, and at the same time cheap Chinese robots appeared, taking market share from Maytronics. These factors led to a sharp drop in orders, declining margins, and profit warnings.
In the past few years Maytronics has carried out a streamlining program and embarked on an investment plan with the aim of becoming relevant again in the long term.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on August 17, 2026.
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