BEIJING-The Israeli investment giant Infinity Group said it will continue to focus on technology transfer to succeed in the fierce private-equity (PE) market.

"We buy technologies from Israel and license them in China," said Amir Gal-Or, Infinity Group managing director and founder. "There are too many players in the PE market competing homogeneously, and many will die without core competencies."

According to Gal-Or, some intellectual property is not very profitable in Israel because of the small market scale and high production costs, but when applied to Chinese companies and put into practice, the benefits can be considerable.

He said Infinity Group's latest deal is the transfer of marine algae technology from the Israeli company Ltd to a Chinese electric power company to produce healthy food and protect the environment.

"Clean energy is promising in China, and we are negotiating with both sides," Gal-Or said. "We may spend $2 million to $5 million on buying the technology."

Besides technology transfers, Gal-Or said Infinity will help Chinese companies to market and give expert support. Backed by China Development Bank Corp and Israel Development Bank Ltd (IDB), Infinity has four deals in progress, as well as eight completed since 2005, in areas including semi-conductors and industrial equipment.

Gal-Or said the two latest deals, in 2011, involve Pulsar and Ghost technology acquisitions. Ghost technology is a recognized pioneer in cloud computing and Infinity has found two partners in Shanghai and Harbin who will use it.

Pulsar offers solutions to help companies manufacture products more efficiently at a lower cost, and Infinity is setting up a management team with local research agencies to transform the technology.

Gal-Or also told China Daily that Infinity Group is in engaged in a deal involving China's move to expand in the global agricultural chemical market.

"Our parent company’s Koor Industries Ltd is selling stakes of Israel's Makhteshim Agan (MA) Industries to the Chinese chemical manufacturer China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina)," he said.

ChemChina has plans to spend a total of $1.44 billion on acquiring the 53 percent of MA Industries held by public shareholders, and an additional 7 percent owned by Koor, controlled by IDB. The deal is set to be completed by the third quarter of 2011.

When choosing a city to invest in, Gal-Or said, the openness of the local government is a vital consideration. "Infinity has just signed an agreement to set up a fund in Chongqing because the southwestern municipality provides us with financial benefits," he said.

"Top-tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai are already quite developed, so we plan to go to the second- and third-tier cities," he said.

China Daily

(China Daily 04/28/2011 page14)