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Enzymotec, which has developed a proprietary method for processing fatty acids, is seeking to raise $75 million.
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/ By Gali Weinreb /
Nutritional supplements company Enzymotec Ltd. has filed a prospectus for listing on Nasdaq. ”Globes” was the first to report on the company plans to hold an IPO in the US six months ago.
Enzymotec will apparently try to raise $75 million. The underwriters will be Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Jefferies LLC will be the underwriters, Wells Fargo Securities LLC will be the lead manager, and Canaccord Genuity and Wedbush Securities will be the co-managers. Rothschild Bank will be the financial advisor. The offering will apparently be held at a company value of $200-300 million, after money.
Enzymotec was founded in 1999 at the Naiot Venture Accelerator in Yokne’am, Israel, by Dr. Basheer Sobhi and Daniel Plotkin. It is currently run by CEO Ariel Katz. If the IPO goes ahead, Enzymotec will be the third Israeli company to list on Nasdaq this year by the front door (after Alcobra Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (Nasdaq: ADHD) and Kamada Ltd. (:Nadaq: KMDA); TASE: KMDA)).
Several Israeli companies have also dual-listed on Wall Street (RedHill Biopharma Ltd. (Nasdaq: RDHL); TASE: RDHL), Mazor Robotics Ltd. (Nasdaq: MZOR; TASE:MZOR), and Can-Fite BioPharma Ltd. (TASE:CFBI; Bulletin Board: CANFY)), or listed after a merger ( Immune Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (Nasdaq: EPCTD; OMX: EPCT) which has merged with EpiCept Corporation), or upgraded from the secondary market (Oramed Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq:ORMP)).
Enzymotec’s main shareholders are Galam Group Ltd., owned by Kibbutz Maanit, venture capital funds Ofer Hi-Tech, GlenRock Israel, and Millennium Material Technologies Fund, and Mexico’s Arancia Industrial SA de CV.
Enzymotec has been considering an IPO for years, and several factors apparently have come together to make it go ahead now: the US primary market window is open; large-scale marketing in the US; and strong sales growth. One of the main beneficiaries of the IPO, if it materializes, will be the Bereshit debt recycling fund, which invested in Galam in a deal that will now pay off handsomely.
Enzymotec has raised only $17 million, and began generating revenue within a few years of being founded. Sources inform ”Globes” that the company posted $30 million revenue in the first half of 2013, after $50 million revenue in 2012 as a whole, and that it has been growing steadily in recent years. Dr. Sobhi, who no longer works at the company, will reportedly make several million dollars on the IPO.
Enzymotec has developed a proprietary method for processing fatty acids (lipids). The company operates worldwide, but its breakthrough came with the launch of its branded product line, Vaya Pharma, in the US in late 2011. The company now sells its nutritional supplements under this label, as well as through scores of other companies’ nutritional supplements labels.
Published by www.globes-online.com
