Yokne’am-based Syneron Medical Ltd. (Nasdaq: ELOS), founded only four years ago, held its IPO less than eighteen months ago. Syneron develops cosmetic equipment.
Moshe Mizrahi was CEO of Syneron until three weeks ago. He has accompanied the company for the past four years, leading it to one of the most impressive exits achieved by an Israeli manager. Two weeks after resigning his position, Mizrahi decided to start selling his holding in the company.
Three separate reports to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) show that Mizrahi sold his remaining 4.9% of the company, 1.22 million shares, for $50 million. Mizrahi’s sell-off is perfectly timed - Syneron’s shares has now reached a peak of $40, reflecting a $1 billion market cap, more than triple its value for its IPO.
Last March, as part of Syneron’s offer for sale, Mizrahi sold shares for $23.3 million. His total gross proceeds from selling Syneron shares are therefore currently $80 million (NIS 370 million). Within a year, Mizrahi has become one of the wealthiest people in Israel.
Mizrahi is still a director in Syneron, a position requiring less exposure to investors. One of the few times he was exposed to the public was at a conference organized by the Israel Venture Capital (IVC) Research Center for Israeli high-tech companies on the subject of global capital markets, a few days after Syneron’s secondary issue. The title of Mizrahi’s lecture at the conference was, “Lessons learned from an IPO from the company’s perspective.”
In his lecture, Mizrahi recommended that parties at interest not sell shares in the context of IPOs. “Don’t try to sell shares in an IPO, because you’ll have to answer questions during the road show from people asking why managers are selling shares. Experience shows that answering questions of this type wastes valuable time. If you want to sell shares, wait six months,” he said. Syneron waited patiently for six months after its IPO, then, after the share surged, made one of the biggest offers for sale ever by an Israeli company on Nasdaq.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on November 28, 2005