Landa's nanographic ink worth $1B
Calcalist learns high-tech industrialist will try to raise $150-$200 million for his nanographic print company, Landa Corporation, based on market cap of $800 million to $1 billion
Landa will attempt to raise $150-$200 million based on a market cap of $800 million to one billion dollars, Calcalist has learned. This is a staggering market value for a company, which has until this year, operated under a shroud of secrecy.
Landa will be leaving for London next week, where he will hold a series of meetings with a number of investment banks to select the bank which will underwrite the offering.
Landa prefers to keep the company in private hands, hence will not hold an IPO but a private placement for foreign institutional and private investors. Once Landa names the underwriters, the investor road show will be underway.
Last May, at the quadrennial Drupa international print exhibition in Germany, Landa unveiled his ambitious nanographic print project with great success.
Calcalist has learned that following the event, Landa Corporation received orders for 400 industrial printers, each costing a whopping €2 million (about $2.6 million). This means that in effect, Landa has a backlog of orders worth $1 billion.
The project is currently in its development stage and, once completed, a considerably large production array will be set up. For that end, Landa needs a cash injection and he plans to establish two production units in Israel – an ink factory and a printer factory – which will employ hundreds of workers.
Landa, who currently has a 200-employee staff, used his private capital to fund all of his company’s activity. The expenses amounted to approximately $40-$50 million a year. In order to finance the final development of the printer and the production array, Landa will need a sizable cash injection.
After considering a number of alternatives to a financing round, Landa eventually opted for a private financing round for international institutional investors. The format of the round has yet to be determined thus it is unknown whether Landa will be offering bonds or shares.
Among potential investors are a number of major private equity funds such as KKR, Permira, Blackstone, Blackrock, and possibly several major financial institutions, including HSBC and Citibank and naturally large companies from the printing industry. It seems, however, that Landa will lean toward financial investors rather than strategic partners.
Despite difficulties in raising capital due to the downturn in the initial offering market following the upbeat activity in the market in the first half of 2012, estimates are that Landa’s prospects are very good.
Landa Corporation declined comment.
This op-ed was originally published in Hebrew by Calcalist
