European private equity investor Permira Fund is laying the ground for a Wall Street IPO of Israeli irrigation systems company Netafim Ltd.. Permira said it has hired investment bankers Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch as well as CenterView Partners and has begun writing the prospectus. Permira Fund is also open to offers to buy Netafim.
Permira has a 61% stake in Netafim with Kibbutz Hatzerim (33%) and Kibbutz Magal (6%) owning the remaining shares. Market sources believe that Permira is looking for a deal that values Netafim at $1.5 billion. Permira acquired control of Netafim in 2011 at a company value of $870 million. Ran Maidan is currently Netafim's CEO.
In response to reports, Netafim said, "Due to Netafim's good results in recent years, the positive forecast ahead and growing interest worldwide in the agricultural and irrigation markets, the company is examining a number of strategic options including a New York IPO or sale of the company."
"The company is working on both possibilities at the same time and a decision has yet to be reached on the matter. For this process the company has hired Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and CenterView."
Netafim has 16 factories worldwide manufacturing irrigation solutions include three in Israel. The company operates in 110 countries and has 4,000 employees.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 19, 2017
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