Wellborn Capital, an investment firm owned by Tzvika Sobel and part of the Morris Kahn family, is investing about NIS 10 million in Israeli shipping company BHM for a 45% stake. The investment will be implemented through the allocation of new shares in order to inject capital to support the expansion of the company's activities and by acquiring half of the shares from the founders and controlling owners of BHM, Zvika Bar Haim and Amir Manjad.
BHM specializes in managing and providing solutions across the international logistics chain of the shipping industry. The company provides sea, air and land shipping services, dropshipping, customs brokerage, as well as land shipping across the Emirates – a service that has become crucial since the signing of normalization agreements by some Emirati countries with Israel and Covid. The crisis temporarily closed sea trade routes from China.
BHM was founded in 2016 by Bar Haim and Menjad, who met while working at AD Aviation Services, the representative company of the Global GSA Group, a subsidiary of the Flying Cargo Group, the Israeli shipping company of the brothers Avi and Danny Reck, who later sold the company to the German shipping company Giant DHL.
While working together, the duo decided to strike out on their own with the goal of providing global companies with more efficient shipping services, focusing on complete transparency and personalized service tailored to each customer's needs. The company, which has a simple administrative headquarters, recorded revenues of NIS 30-40 million last year, and is constantly growing every year. Bar Haim and Menjad each own 50% of the company's shares.
As part of the deal with Wellborn Capital, the two owners will sell half of their holdings (in equal parts) while Wellborn will simultaneously inject capital into the company in order to support the expansion of activities. The total value of the deal, the purchase of the founders’ shares and the injection of capital into the company’s coffers, is approximately 10 million shekels. After the deal, the two founders will retain a combined 55% of the company's shares.
The goal of Wellborn and the BHM founders is to allow the company to realize its increased growth potential by, among other things, expanding the customer base and making it accessible to larger customers; To give the company the financial strength to support its ability to undertake mergers and acquisitions in order to improve the shipping process from end to end, as well as strengthen its relationships with the banking system to facilitate the receipt of lines of credit. The company now has about 50 large regular customers.
Wellborn's investment in BHM is made through one of the company's investment arms. The second arm is the venture capital fund, Wellborn Ventures, which has so far invested in a number of seed and early-stage Israeli technology companies, and is currently investing in about 15 different technology companies.
Businessman and philanthropist Maurice Khan, 94, is one of the richest people in Israel with an estimated fortune of $1.1 billion, according to the latest Forbes rankings. Khan built his fortune by founding Golden Pages and Amdocs. Over the past two decades, Khan has primarily focused on social and community projects.
Published by Globes, Israel Business News – en.globes.co.il – on June 3, 2024.
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