Unitronics Industrial Automation Ltd.(TASE: UNIT), controlled by FIMI Opportunity Funds, and managed by founder CEO Haim Shani, is continuing expansion of its automated parking lot operations in North America. The company today notified the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) that it had signed an agreement to set up an automated parking lot in the New York suburbs. Unitronics will be paid $13.5 million (NIS 50 million) for the project according to progress of the work and milestones. The work is scheduled for completion in 2020.
Unitronics deals in automation products, automated warehouses, and automated robot-operated parking lots. The company has completed seven automated parking lots in North America to date, with nine more under construction.
Unitronics finished the third quarter of 2018 with NIS 49.3 million in revenue, 9% more than in the third quarter of 2017. Operating profit totaled NIS 3.4 million, 50% more than in the corresponding quarter in 2017, and net profit was NIS 1.7 million, compared with NIS 430,000 in the third quarter of 2017.
Unitronics's revenue totaled NIS 145 million in the first three quarters of 2018, 9.1% more than in the corresponding period in 2017. Operating profit reached NIS 9.5 million in this period, 67% more than in the corresponding period in 2017, while net profit was NIS 4.2 million, compared with a NIS 558,000 loss in the first three quarters of 2017.
Unitronics has been working on a split in its activity in recent months. Growth in its automation solutions (automated warehouses and automated robot-operated parking lots) has been accelerating over the past year, and this business, which is now conducted through a subsidiary, will be split off into a new fellow subsidiary, U-tron, whose shares will be listed on the stock exchange. Unitronics's share price responded to the report with a 5% jump, pushing its market cap up to NIS 327 million, following a 25% rise in the share price in the past six months.
FIMI owns 50% of Unitronics, after acquiring control of the company in March 2016 at a company value of NIS 220 million. FIMI's return on its investment thus far is 50%. Shani owns 22% of the company.
Shani said today, "The agreements totaling nearly NIS 190 million we signed in the past six months for setting up automated parking lots and warehouses show the growing demand for our advanced robot systems and recognition by parking lot operators and warehouses of the advantages of the company's technology and the quality of its products."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 13, 2019
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