The "next big thing" in the energy industry is the electric car. Oil prices are soaring, causing entrepreneurs like Better Place LLC CEO Shai Agassi to believe that the day will come when most of us will travel by electric cars, reducing air pollution. Agassi, to his credit, has been able to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for his vision, boosting Better Place's value to over $1 billion. Now, more Israeli entrepreneurs are following down the trail he has blazed.
Two of them are Yaron Sheinman and Yariv Ben-Yehuda, who stand behind CES Computerized Electricity Systems Ltd., which has filed a prospectus for an IPO on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE). The company plans to raise up to NIS 18 million ($5 million) in an offering of shares only, at an estimated company value of several tens of millions of shekels.
CES's prospectus shows that it is a start-up for all intents and purposes. It was founded 21 years ago, but has been operating in its current format for just five years. The company develops and manufactures computerized electrical boards and provides solutions for efficient and cost-effective management of electricity.
CES says in the prospectus that its electrical boards "are a unique product in which each unit can monitor electricity consumption on each of the electrical circuits connected to the board."
Unique or not, CES has not yet created value from the technology it developed. One reason is that it completed development and obtained marketing licenses for the resulting products only last year. Only this year did the company sign several distribution agreements and begin conducting tests, mostly in Israel, South Africa, the US, Canada, and Russia.
As part of its plan, CES signed an agreement with Gridbot Inc., a US company that is developing networked electric vehicle charging stations.
CES's entrepreneurs took note of Agassi's vision, and this year, the company began examining combining its products for the electric car recharging network. "The company sees this market as a fertile plain for the interaction and marketing of its products in order to become an important player in the market," states CES; a goal that appears, for now, to be somewhat disconnected from reality.
CES posted NIS 361,000 revenue in the first half of 2010, and it had an operating loss of NIS 6 million. The company's accountant attached a going concern warning to the company's results.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 1, 2010
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