Chilean Investor Sells Smart Shooter Stake for $15 Million After Major Contract Win
Translated & summarized from Globes by baba
Alejandro (Alexander) Weinstein, an early investor in Israeli drone interception firm Smart Shooter, sold his remaining shares for approximately $15 million following a major contract announcement. While this investment yielded significant profits, other ventures by Weinstein, including in Pluri and Gauzy, have resulted in substantial losses.
The story in 5 lines · by baba
- Investor Alejandro Weinstein sold Smart Shooter shares for $15 million.
- Smart Shooter secured a $150 million contract with the U.S. military.
- Weinstein was an early investor and profited significantly from Smart Shooter.
- Other Weinstein investments in Pluri and Gauzy have faced major losses.
- Weinstein has a history of successful investments, including in pharmaceuticals.
Chilean-Jewish businessman Alejandro (Alexander) Weinstein has sold his remaining shares in Smart Shooter, an Israeli company specializing in drone interception systems, for approximately 58 million shekels (about $15 million USD). This sale follows a significant 30% surge in Smart Shooter's stock price last week, triggered by the announcement of a major contract with the U.S. Department of Defense, valued at up to $150 million. Weinstein, who was one of the company's earliest investors, initially invested in Smart Shooter about 15 years ago and held nearly 10% of its shares prior to its Tel Aviv Stock Exchange IPO in March, from which he sold shares worth about 10 million shekels. His overall investment in Smart Shooter is estimated to have yielded him tens of millions of shekels in profit.
Weinstein, 68, has a history of successful investments, including a significant exit from his family's pharmaceutical company, CFR, which was acquired by Abbott in 2014 for $2.9 billion. Since then, he has operated primarily as a private investor, with a particular interest in Israeli companies across various sectors, including digital health, genomics, and medical devices. He previously stated in an interview that he looks for talent, organizational culture, market opportunity, and transformative technology when investing, often preferring to be the first investor in a company.
However, Weinstein's investment portfolio also includes ventures that have not performed as well. He has invested over $17 million in the stem cell company Pluri, where he serves as chairman and holds a 28.7% stake, but the company's stock has fallen significantly, resulting in a substantial paper loss for him. Similarly, his investment in Gauzy, a "smart glass" technology company, has seen a dramatic decline in value, with the company recently undergoing a debt restructuring and a private capital injection led by Weinstein. Gauzy's stock is currently trading at a negligible valuation and faces delisting risk from Nasdaq. Another investment, Cyberon, which developed technology to prevent distraction from mobile phones while driving, also saw most of its value wiped out after Weinstein invested $1.5 million in 2022.