DenX shareholders will receive Helm shares. Investors include Vitalife Life Sciences Fund, Israel Seed Partners, Gaon Holdings subsidiary Alon Technologies Venture Fund, Union Bank of Israel subsidiary Union Capital Markets, Lumenis (Nasdaq :LUME ) and Teva (Nasdaq:TEVA). DenX employees will also benefit, receiving options worth $3 million, amounting to tens of thousands of dollars each. The deal is expected to be completed in November, after which DenX will be listed on the ASX in Melbourne.
Helm already owned 11% of DenX through its investment company Bex Investment. The Australians have now signed an agreement to buy the stakes of all of DenX's other shareholders, issuing shares of the merged company in exchange. The company value after the merger is estimated at $35 million, of which $8 million is being injected in cash into the merged company.
$1.6 million will come from capital raising on the ASX, planned for late August. The remaining $6.6 million will be injected directly by Helm and its subsidiaries. DenX plans to use the money to continue its sales and marketing operations worldwide.
DenX has two main products for dentists. Both are based on patented proprietary computerized monitoring and 3D imaging of dental drills in the patients' mouths. In the next stage, DenX plans to apply its technology for other surgical uses, including orthopedics and neurosurgery .
The company's first product, DentSim dental training simulator for students, has already been purchased by dental schools in Israel and worldwide since the company's founding in 1994.
DenX believes that the market for its IGI computerized dental surgery system is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and it will be the company's main growth engine in future years .
DenX has 65 employees, including 50 at its headquarters in Moshav Ora outside of Jerusalem, and the rest in subsidiaries worldwide. It was founded eight years ago by president Alon Hayka, Liat Eitan and chief scientist Joshua Lustmann of Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem ..
Hayka believes the capital injection from the merger will allow DenX to grow rapidly through large marketing investments in the US, Europe and Far East. In the first seven months of 2002, DenX sold $2.8 million worth of imaging systems.
Jerusalem - based start - up DenX announced it has been sold to Australian Stock Exchange shell company Helm Corporation Ltd (ASX:HCL) in a reverse merger at a company value of $17.5 million, before money. DenX develops computerized dental training and implant systems.