The intense upheavals that have befallen the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in recent months have led to a dehydration of the market Initial issues On the part of new companies that sought to become public and even published a draft prospectus for this purpose. However, there are cases where the very exposure of the company leads to an exercise of ownership by the owner, even if not in the way it was planned to do so.
Such is the case with the retail information company SterncastWhich shortly after the publication of the prospectus is now being sold toFortissimo Foundation Under the management of Yuval Cohen for NIS 180 million – a price 10% lower than the value that Sterncast expected to achieve in the IPO.
By the way, this is the second time in less than a month that the owners of a company with an open prospectus are giving up an IPO in favor of a sale transaction. At the end of May, it was the real estate company Aviv Entrepreneurship, which after the publication of the prospectus signed a deal in which the mall giant Liora Ofer’s Lissron will buy 50% of its shares with an investment of NIS 600 million, with most of the proceeds going to the company ).
A source close to the Sterncast told Globes that “the data the company provides is critical information for suppliers and retailers. The company has developed interesting capabilities, also in the B2B field, and Fortissimo I think will want to continue to improve it and expand its operations.
Among the controlling shareholders of Sterncast (held through the Valio Data partnership) are a number of well-known figures in the Israeli capital market, headed by Victor Shmerich and Ido Neuberger, who previously owned 19.3% of each. Which led the process of issuing the now canceled company.
Information from 2,650 checkouts and points of sale
In the past, Sterncast was controlled by the Israeli software giant Retalix, which developed software systems for retail chains, mainly for supermarkets and convenience stores. In 2013, Retalix was acquired by the American company NCR for $ 800 million.
About two years later, NCR sold Retalix’s holdings in Sterncast to a pair of owners of Valio Base, Danny Rimoni and the directors of Sterncast itself for several tens of millions of shekels. These (through the Valio Data partnership) later also acquired the remaining shares in the company, from Coca-Cola Israel, Isracard and Discount Investments.
Sterncast has a digital system that collects all the retail information from 2,650 checkouts and points of sale in supermarkets and consumer product chains, and processes it into an available and online information system. This is information about the scope of the market in terms of quantity and money, the categories of products included in it, the prices of the products and market shares, as well as the variability of the data over time.
The company operates in two areas. The first area is B2B – automation of business processes between companies, the second area is data and analysis – collection, processing and analysis of information in the Fast Consumer Products Market (FMCG).
The company’s data and analysis segment segment in real time 85% of the products market that have a barcode in Israel, with an annual financial volume of NIS 42.2 billion. Sterncast customers receive information, trends and data on market share over time in a variety of segments.
The company’s customers include all the major retail chains in the economy, such as Shufersal, Rami Levy and Yochananoff. Among the suppliers that work with the system are Tnuva, Osem, Strauss and Coca-Cola. Over the years, the company has entered other areas and it also provides services to security bodies such as Rafael and the prison service, banks, insurance companies and more.
“A market still characterized by slow processes”
Sterncast, founded 20 years ago, employs 114 people. The company’s shareholders, in addition to Shmerich and Neuberger of Valio Base, include Danny Rimoni, CEO of Rimoni Industries and its owners (19.4%) and a partnership of the company’s past and present directors – Danny Moshioff, Guy Melishkevitz (CEO), Yoram Sagi and Barry Shaked – which owns 42% of the company before the sale.
Sterncast has been showing consistent profitability in recent years. In 2021, its revenues totaled NIS 62.5 million, an increase of 7% compared to the previous year. Operating profit jumped by 25% to NIS 14.3 million and the bottom line was that the company recorded a net profit of NIS 10.3 million, an increase of 17% compared to the net profit a year earlier.
Yuval Cohen, founder and managing partner of the Fortissimo Foundation, noted that “Sterncast is an impressive platform that offers innovative solutions in the field of digital transformation for business processes between companies, a market that is still characterized by manual and slow processes that have gradually become more efficient in recent years.
“We anticipate that this growth will intensify in the coming years thanks to raising awareness among companies of the significant benefits of moving to automated and digital processes in the cloud. We intend to accelerate Sterncast’s growth by developing more innovative products, acquiring complementary activities and expanding into new areas.”
ID card Sterncast
Line of Business: Analysis systems for retailers and businesses
history: Established in 1999. Its main shareholders are Dan Rimoni, Ido Neuberger, Victor Shemrich, and Barry Shaked and the company’s executives
data: Employs 114 employees. The company’s headquarters are located in Kiryat Matalon in Petah Tikva