The share price of Foresight Autonomous Holdings Ltd. (TASE: FRST), which is active in the hot sector of traffic accident prevention, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), and autonomous driving apps, zoomed 20% today on a huge turnover, completing an advance of over 300% this year. The company market cap has reached NIS 670 million.
Foresight, which still has no revenue, today reported to the TASE that it had submitted an initial draft document for listing on Nasdaq to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). After the registration process is completed, the company's shares will be listed for trading under the FRSX ticker symbol through American Depository Receipts (ADRs), with each ADR representing five shares in the company.
The current share price is NIS 7.30, so the price of the company's ADR is expected to be $10. At the end of last month, Foresight reported that it had signed a pilot performance agreement for use of the company's system with Chinese auto manufacturer JAC Motors for testing the system. The companies agreed that the Chinese company would provide Foresight with a fleet of vehicles in which the latter's systems would be installed. The Chinese company will fund most of the pilot, in which the performance of Foresight's system for detecting risks and warning about traffic accidents will be tested, and for the purpose of gaining an understanding of requirements of ADAS systems for a Chinese driver, taking into account the local driving culture, infrastructure, and weather.
The pilot is being conducted, with JAC operating the vehicles using drivers allocated for the test. These systems will photograph and record the journeys, and the resulting information will be processed and analyzed by Foresight, which will use the information gathered in the pilot to adapt the system to the needs of the Chinese market. Depending on the results of the pilot, the two companies will consider signing a commercial agreement.
NIS 40 million raised
Two months ago, Foresight took advantage of the positive momentum created by Intel's $15 billion acquisition of Mobileye(NYSE: MBLY), which operates in similar markets. Foresight raised NIS 40 million in two offerings at a share price of NIS 1.90-2.10. The Foresight share price has since zoomed by over 200%.
CEO Haim Siboni is the controlling shareholder in Foresight with a 39% stake, while stock exchange shell trader Kfir Zilberman owns 5%. Zilberman led the recent round together with Itschak Shrem, another investor in the company. The financing rounds added a gallery of auto industry personages to Foresight's investors, including the Dayan family, which own a leading car trade-in dealership and other auto industry concerns; Eini-family controlled Hamizrach Holding, a controlling shareholder in Universal Motors Israel (UMI) and Avis Israel; and Tzipora and Ariel Carasso from the Carasso family, which imports Nissan and Renault cars to Israel.
Financial figures and concern are also among Foresight's investors: the Alpha Value Investment fund, Dr. Yoav Ben Dror, Omer Galin and Eddie Shapiro, founders of successful algo-trading company Final; Retalix founder Brian Cooper; Ayalim Mutual Funds; Tachlit Indices; the Hatzavim hedge fund; and Adv. Shmuel Zysman.
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on May 14, 2017
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