The Teuza Fund

On the rumor that an exit had been closed between the Teuza Fund and a company of its main stockholder Alfred Mann, I bought some shares on TASE for a fistful of mangos. Teuza means audacity in Hebrew, mango means money in lunfardo, the lowlife jargon of Buenos Aires. Apparently others are also buying, because the stock rised 1.5% in a day of widespread losses. Encomendando mi alma a Dios, I bought at the top.

Teuza Venture Capital Fund was founded in Israel, and began its activities as a publicly traded company in April 1992. At that time, Teuza raised funds from both the public and interested parties, in the amount of $22M. Teuza's shares are traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Teuza's invests in venture companies in the field of software semiconductors, communications, electronics and medical equipment. Teuza is extremely involved in its portfolio companies, and has a representation on the board of directors of most. Teuza takes part in its portfolio companies' policy development, strategic planning and search for financial opportunities, and it maintains follow up of the companies' performances. Teuza's policy is to share its profits with its shareholders. Following two years of significant profits, in July 2001 Teuza distributed a cash dividend in the amount of NIS 45M. The total dividend per share was NIS 0.6876, representing 25% of the share's market value before ex-day.
Total company market value currently stands at about 150 million shekel (37 million US$) having a net equity worth of about 25M$.Since January 2004 the price per share of Teuza shares increased by 100%. So far, Teuza Fund has invested in 15 companies, in the total amount of $35M. Usually the company prefers to have a large equity stake between 25%-49%, so that every successful exit becomes very significant. Teuza has successfully exited from nine companies (partial exit from four of them). One of its companies had a very successful IPO on the USA NASDAQ. In April 2000 Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd., in which the original investment was $900,000, issued its shares on the USA NASDAQ stock exchange (at a post money valuation of $285M). Teuza had a successful exit from WaveAccess when Lucent bought the the company for $60M. The profit from this realization was about NIS 43M. Teuza realized its balance investments in Oramir that was sold to Applied Materials for 27M$. In the past Teuza realized its entire investment in A.B. Seeds. Most of Teuza's companies have completed their development stage and have begun to market and sell their products. The majority of these products are protected by patents and copyrights. The fund has at least one director on the board of directors of most of its portfolio companies. Many of its companies have received substantial grants from the Israeli Chief Scientist and/or the BIRD Foundation. It is anticipated that several of the portfolio companies will be exited in the near future. Teuza's policy is to involve strategic partners in its portfolio companies. Thereby Teuza creates the way for a successful exit, as was the case when Lucent bought WaveAccess for $60M. Teuza's strategic partners, past and present, include Intel Corporation, Johnson & Johnson, The Fairchild Corporation, Dow Chemicals, Lucent and Applied Materials.

Follow-Up April 16, 2007: Nada.