NZX company invests in billion-dollar technology
Scott Technology has invested in Industrial Research Limited superconductor technology.
Dunedin-based NZX-listed company Scott Technology have bought a controlling stake in superconductor company HTS-110.
HTS-110 is an associate company of crown research institute Industrial Research Limited. It designs, manufactures and sells electromagnets which using superconducting technology developed at IRL.
The global market for superconducting applications is thought to be worth several billion dollars in the coming decades.
Superconducting technology enables the transmission of electricity without resistance or the loss of energy. It can also be used to generate very strong magnetic fields, used in small powerful systems, such as MRI machines.
Superconducting technology will enable machines to be lighter, smaller and more efficient than existing copper wire technology allows.
Applications for HTS-110 products range from cutting-edge nanotechnology to the manufacture of ultra-high capacity computer hard drives, and from accelerated drug development to increasing yields in biofuel plants.
IRL chief executive Shaun Coffey said HTS-110 had been growing rapidly over recent years. It now had a leading position in the global superconducting magnet market.
Scott Technology managing director Chris Hopkins said HTS-110 was expected to be both earnings and cash-flow positive as soon as it was acquired.
Revenues and earnings are expected to grow significantly in the mediumto long term as the product range moves through to full commercialisation.
Endeavour Capital executive chairman Neville Jordan is the fund manager of one of the New Zealand government’s venture investment funds.
“Right from the outset we saw considerable potential in HTS-110.”
IRL superconducting technology won two of its developers - Drs Bob Buckley and Jeff Tallon - the inaugural Prime Minister’s Science Prize last year. They have been working with the technology for over 25 years.
NBR staff
Thu, 31 Mar 2011
Thu, 31 Mar 2011
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NZX company invests in billion-dollar technology
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