Ondas buys Aran’s defense activities for NIS 100m
US defense tech company Ondas Holdings has signed an agreement to acquire the defense activities of Israeli company Aran R&D for NIS 100 million. Aran will record a pre-tax profit of about NIS 75 million. The deal follows Ondas's appointment of former Mossad chief David Barnea as chairman. Payment will be in Ondas shares, and completion is subject to Competition Authority approval. This is Ondas's sixth acquisition in Israel.
US defense tech company Ondas Holdings has signed an agreement to acquire the defense activities of Israeli company Aran R&D (TASE: ARAN) for NIS 100 million. The deal comes two weeks after Ondas appointed former Mossad boss David Barnea as chairman, continuing its spending spree in Israel. Aran R&D will record a pre-tax profit of about NIS 75 million on completion of the transaction. After the sale, Aran R&D will retain its existing activities in plastics industry technology, recycling, investment in medical startups, and software and computing services. Aran R&D was traded prior to the report at a market cap of NIS 214 million, and its shares are rising in response. The controlling shareholders of Aran are a group of investors headed by chairman Aharon Cohen, who together hold 46% of the share capital. The company's CEO is Ran Stav. According to Aran's announcement, Ondas will buy the group's activities in development and production of products through the sale of all shares of Aran Defense, a new entity established for the transaction, to which the activities and assets of Aran Models' development and production services division will be transferred. The parties will also enter into real estate rental agreements. The payment will be in Ondas shares. Completion is subject to conditions, including approval from the Israel Competition Authority. This is Ondas's sixth acquisition in Israel and its first of a publicly traded company. Previous acquisitions include Airobotics, Sentrycs, Omnisys, Apeiro Motion Robotics Systems, and 4M Defense. Ondas has also bought the controlling core in Israeli company Smart Precision Optics (SPO).