Magritek, world leading providers of benchtop NMR and MRI instruments, today announced that a major New Zealand private equity investor has acquired a 12% stake in the company for a non-disclosed sum.
The investor is Rangatira Limited, a diversified investment company with investment funds of around $200 million.
Magritek, world leading providers of benchtop NMR and MRI instruments, today announced that a major New Zealand private equity investor has acquired a 12% stake in the company for a non-disclosed sum. The investor is Rangatira Limited, a diversified investment company with investment funds of around $200 million.
The transaction will strengthen Magritek's balance sheet and enable the company to make a significant investment in its offshore sales and marketing following the launch of its new SpinsolveTM Benchtop NMR spectrometer earlier this year.
Magritek chief executive, Dr Andrew Coy, says "Spinsolve has met with a very encouraging market response particularly from chemists in academia and industries including pharmaceuticals, food, polymers and petrochemicals. Spinsolve is a unique offering in that it provides the market with fast, accurate NMR analysis of liquid samples in a convenient package at a very competitive price.
The academic community was the early adopter with initial sales to universities in Australia, Europe and the USA. More recently, we have attracted strong interest from industry customers who appreciate the instrument's unique benefits for reaction monitoring and quality control with its ability to deliver superb spectra in seconds."
"Rangatira provides the means to further commercialise our technology and capitalise on the interest in our powerful, portable MRI and NMR technology by investing in our sales and marketing, and to markedly increase the company's scale and revenues."
As part of the transaction, Rangatira has entered into a conditional undertaking to provide further funds in a year's time that would take its stake in Magritek to 18%. Rangatira director, Sophie Haslem, will join the Magritek Board.
Magritek produces a range of MRI and NMR products including: the world's only student-safe MRI teaching system the Terranova-MRI; the Kea compact spectrometer console; and its NMR Rock Core Analyzer product which provides hydrocarbon reservoir core analysis for the oil and gas sector.
The company's main markets are currently Europe and the United States, each accounting for 40% of the company's revenues. However, the company is forecasting significant growth in Asia, particularly China and India, in the near future.
Rangatira's chief executive, Ian Frame, said, "Magritek is an outstanding New Zealand company. Its technology is underpinned and protected by world-class intellectual property, it's well managed, and has a track record of being able to commercialise complicated technology, making it easier and more accessible to its customers. We also like to think that our investment will enable Magritek to help achieve founder Sir Paul Callaghan's vision of creating a niche high-tech sector capable of transforming New Zealand's culture and economy."
About Magritek
Magritek provides complete NMR and MRI system solutions for the oil and gas industry, and components and subsystems suitable for research laboratories with offices in Aachen, Germany and Wellington, New Zealand. The company was founded in 2004 as an advanced technology company exporting from New Zealand to customers all over the world. The initial NMR technology and IP used in Magritek products grew out of a decade of world-class research by teams at both Massey University and Victoria University of Wellington.
About Rangatira Limited
Rangatira is a Wellington-based investment company with investment funds of around $200 million. Established in 1937, the Company is 51% owned by the JR McKenzie Trust with other community and charitable organisations owning another 15% of the shares. The balance of the shares is owned by private investors. Rangatira's mission is to increase both the capital value of its shares and the dividends paid to its shareholders by investing creatively and competitively.
Rangatira has built a portfolio of local and international investments across a wide range of sectors. The Company has pursued a policy of investment in small to medium-sized unlisted New Zealand companies, complemented by holdings in a range of publicly listed New Zealand, Australian and international companies.
All investments have been made taking a long-term position in companies that are well founded and well managed with good growth potential.
Rangatira is strictly commercial in its investment approach and benchmarks its performance against the wider investment community.
Rangatira will continue to explore investment opportunities across a range of business sectors. We aim to add value to our unlisted investments by actively contributing at management and board level, recognising the need to combine high standards of governance with sound management and a clear focus on growth and profitability.