Nanostart Asia, a subsidiary of Nanostart AG (OTCQX:NASRY), has announced the sale of its ownership stake in Curiox Biosystems Pte Ltd – held through the Nanostart Singapore Early Stage Venture Fund – to a strategic investor, the Zicom Group. An undisclosed profit was achieved with the sale.
The sale of shares took place within the framework of a Curiox capital increase, in which the Zicom Group simultaneously took control of the Nanostart Asia share in Curiox. As a new strategic investor in Curiox, Zicom will own nearly 41 percent of shares.
"We already decided at a relatively early stage to sell our share in Curiox to the Zicom Group, an investor with a strategic interest. We remain convinced of the developmental potential of Curiox," explains Andreas Kröll, managing director of Nanostart Asia. "We carefully compared the additional financial costs and our earnings forecast for invested capital with our overall earnings goals."
Sales proceeds received by Nanostart for its shares in Curiox will not be distributed as dividends and therefore will not impact results at the Nanostart AG level. Instead they will flow back into the fund and be invested in new shareholdings.
In 2007, Curiox Biosystems was the first shareholding financed by Nanostart AG in Singapore. Curiox has developed a process for analyzing aqueous bioprobes that requires only a fraction – an average of one hundredth – of the usually required testing quantity.
The Nanostart Singapore Early Stage Venture Fund I was the first private investment fund to be launched by Nanostart AG as a segregated vehicle, a structure typical in the venture capital industry. The government of Singapore has, through its National Research Foundation (NRF), invested SGD 10 million (approx. EUR 5 million) in this fund dedicated to bringing the most promising nanotechnology-based startups in Singapore to successful commercialization. The fund is managed by Nanostart Asia Pte Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of Nanostart AG.
The acquiring company, Zicom Group, is a leading specialist equipment manufacturer and niche engineering service provider with core expertise in mechanical, hydraulics, precision, and instrumentation engineering.
Source: http://www.nanostart.de/