Benny Landa's laboratory diamond company, Lusix, will be sold for only NIS 9.5 million

Benny Landa's laboratory diamond company, Lusix, will be sold for only NIS 9.5 million (approximately $2.5 million) to the Japanese investor Panoji Fujimori, owner of the public EDP company from Japan, which produces the seeds needed for the production of laboratory diamonds.

The Japanese investor undertook to employ 20 of the company's employees and to continue its activities in Israel.
If the court approves the sale, it will be a sad end for the company that has lost 65 million dollars in the last two years. This, after 152.5 million dollars were invested in it since it was established in 2016. Shai Bar Nir, the trustee of the company on behalf of the court, wants to approve its sale to the Japanese company, after he says there was a bidding process with another bidder, whose current bid is 25% higher than his bid. The Japanese proposal includes no less than 36 payments of NIS 238,000 each, and NIS 950,000 in cash. Most of the company's employees, represented by attorney Ofir Ronan, will be forced to leave.
Bar Nir noted that in light of the situation in Israel, it was difficult to recruit investors for the company, which reached NIS 103 million in debt, and that even those who were interested had difficulty coming to Israel. Under these circumstances, it is not possible to continue looking for additional buyers and we must act quickly to sell the company and transfer its assets, he wrote. Landa invested alone until 2020, when the company raised $90 million from Louis Vuitton, Moore Investment House, Ragnar Fund and other investors.
Landa, who owns 25% of the shares, invested $47.5 million, while Mor, controlled by Yossi Levy, invested $25 million and owns 17.5% (the majority in equity and part in debt).
In October 2023, against the backdrop of a sharp drop in lab diamond prices due to increased competition in the field, Lucix made an emergency fundraising of $15 million, based on a value of $5 million. Some of the shareholders participated in the recruitment as well as Dodi Wiseman, the owner of Sonol, through a private company; the venture capital fund Geffen Capital; and Aharon Frankel, through a foreign company registered in Malta. These investments will actually go down the drain, because even the little that will be received from the seller will go to cover debts. Only NIS 1.8 million remained in the company's coffers.
According to a request for a stay of proceedings submitted by Lucix to the court in August, it began selling rough diamonds in 2019 and in 2020 the activity even became profitable. However, as of June 2022, the prices of rough laboratory diamonds fell by about 90% due to the entry of many players into the field, as well as due to the lingering effects of the corona epidemic.
According to the request, "as of today, the company employs a little more than 20 workers after about 60 were actually fired a month ago and others resigned on their own initiative or are in the reserves." It is also written that "in the years 2021-2023, the company had to take bank financing and register liens on its assets." According to the application, Lusix estimated the extent of its debts at NIS 103 million, of which NIS 31 million to Leumi and Discount Banks, NIS 23 million to other suppliers, and NIS 3 million to government agencies, according to the chief scientist. However, claims of 62 million shekels and a claim of another creditor, amounting to 99 million shekels, were submitted to the trustee, notes Bar Nir.
An important point noted by Bar Nir contradicts the company's statement that it requested a debt settlement and stated that its shareholders are willing to invest additional capital in such a settlement. "From conversations I had with the shareholders, it became clear that they do not intend to make additional investments in the company," he wrote.
Landa, who made his initial fortune when he sold the digital printing company Indigo to HP Global in 2002 for $830 million, and who currently owns Landa Printing, told Calcalist upon submitting the request for a stay of proceedings that "Losix was established to return the leadership of the diamond sector to the country. There is shame Without trying, there is no shame in trying and reaching such a situation. I am very proud of the company and hope that it will succeed in starting a new path."