Newsletter – CEO Update – May 2016 – Josab International AB
As promised in my last newsletter I will, with regular intervals, share information and update you with ongoing projects and activities within the Josab Group. In the second newsletter I will mainly focus on giving you an update of the progress of ongoing investments, projects and the history of the company.
However, I would also like to be clear that no information can or will be given of an order or acquisition in newsletters or press releases until they have been signed.
Ongoing projects
Since about a year back JOSAB and its representative SAFAB in major parts of Africa have two demo units up and running in Ethiopia. These have been demonstrated for local authorities at different sites with satisfactory result. Presently they are located at a hotel in Addis Abeba and at a water treatment plant in Ambo for demonstration purpose aimed for potential government and/or private investments.
SAFAB has through a water analysis company received information concerning potentially Chlorine resistant algae that is now occurring in eastern Africa. According to previous experience JOSAB’s Aqualite™ filters these algae and in combination with UV-light eliminates them up to 99,9%.
During the month of July the Ethiopian government will release financial resources for the next five-year-plan, which also means that a number of international procurements will start for water- and sewage treatment et. al.
Please, also see SAFAB’s website www.safab.com
The first order in Kerala, India, announced mid-April this year is now manufactured and will be commissioned during June/July.
Josab India also has received an order from Greentech, Rajasthan, India end of April this year. This unit is also manufactured and will be commissioned during June/July.
Ongoing activities and investments
One of the activities mentioned in previous newsletter was focus on sales execution as well as the establishment of JOSAB’s subsidiaries:
- In India our number of staff has now increased to eight persons, whereof the majority is dealing with sales and projects.
- In China we are preparing, together with our Chinese investors, a plan for JOSAB’s future sales- and distribution- strategy in China.
- Our representative in the major parts of Africa, SAFAB, has also recently recruited additional sales and project staff in order to meet future demands and interest from potential customers.
- In order to prepare for introduction of new products and the broadening of our product portfolio (for example solutions for waste water treatment, bio filters etc.) Josab Hungary has recently acquired the neighboring land lot of our production unit in Szerencs. The board has also decided that Josab Hungary also will become a production unit for our Ecological Water Treatment Units, specifically for customers in Europe and Africa.
Josab is continuously screening the market for new products and potential acquisitions that will broaden our product portfolio and add value to our customers as well as our company. As an example, we are looking into other application areas like sewage water, marine environments and farming, in order to diversify our product offering that in principal only consists of potable water.
JOSAB has recently made some changes in its IT structure to achieve latest technology, increased security, a more user friendly tool and a lower cost structure. Furthermore, we have taken the decision to or already implemented some actions regarding office facilities and warehouse to further more lower the cost in the parent company. The target is that the company in Sweden should only consist of a small support organisation for the rest of the Group since the sales in general will take place locally.
The former CEO’s employment contract was ended during the month of May, and he is thereby not registered as an insider of the company.
History
The history of JOSAB takes you from the Sixteenth Chapel in the Vatican in Rome, Italy, via swimming pools in Sweden to the famous wine districts of the Tokaji region in Hungary to end up with ecological water purification units for emergency situations and larger units for small to midsize villages and cities.
The history of JOSAB began 1983 in The Sixteenth Chapel in the Vatican, Rome. The founder of JOSAB, Jan-Olov Sparrman, was asked to head a restoration work of some thousand year old buildings in the Vatican. Some of the old frescoes (old wall paintings) in the Chapel were deteriorating due to humidity. The reason for this was that many buildings were built with Tufo, a volcanic stone belonging to the family of zeolites. This type of zeolites has astonishing capillary features of transporting water up to the height of six meters. Due to constructions with zeolite constantly kept the moist in the walls, the old frescoes deteriorated. Thanks to a Polish patent the transportation of moist could be stopped at ground level and hence valuable frescoes could be saved and restored by experts.
During his three years in Italy Mr. Sparrman also studied other types of zeolite and found that there are many variants with different characteristics. Some of these zeolites had a structure that had adsorbing and ion-exchange capabilities. The different zeolites’ structure is dependent upon age and high water pressure after a volcanic outburst. After returning back to Sweden Mr. Sparrman worked with cleaning water in swimming pools. He searched for a more efficient filter material than sand, and found that zeolite was an interesting alternative. This knowledge also became the link to Dr Janos Papp at Budapest University in Hungary.
During a number of years Dr Papp had studied zeolites and introduced Mr. Sparrman to Clinoptilolite, a special zeolite found in the Tokaji area in north eastern Hungary. The specific features of Clinoptilolite brought Mr. Sparrman into the field of cleaning drinking water and with a focus on mobile units for catastrophe areas where there is an urgent need for clean water. The first mobile unit was produced in 1990. The idea of ecologically cleaning drinking water with a specific Clinoptilolite, where bacteria could be eliminated, was patented under the name Aqualite™ .
JOSAB still sells the emergency units for catastrophe areas, but the main focus is to offer larger scale ecological drinking water purification units (ranging from 100-2700 m³ per day). These units can be mounted in parallel for even larger capacity.
The first subsidiary was established in Hungary, where the mine and production unit to produce Aqualite™ is located. The establishment of our subsidiaries in India and China has been done in the last few years.
In 2013 Interchina Water Treatment Hong Kong Co.acquired shares in JOSAB and thus became the largest owner. The parent company of Interchina Water Treatment Hong Kong Co. operates, on the assignment of the Chinese government and private customers, water and wastewater treatment plants around China. The daily capacity is approximately 1.7 million ton. The company is listed on the Shanghai stock exchange (600187:SH) with a market cap of approximately 7 billion CNY.
In 2016 Prime World Limited, a fully owned subsidiary in the company group of New Concepts Holding company listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock exchange (Stock code: 02221), became a shareholder of Josab International AB. The second largest shareholder of the New Concepts Holding is Mr Yongjun Zhu, current chairman of Josab International AB and former chairman of the ICW company group.
Please, visit our web site www.josab.com where additional information can be found.
Closing remarks:
I hope that you have found the update of ongoing projects and activities useful, and the history of JOSAB interesting. I will return with my next Newsletter end of August where I will give you further update of the progress of ongoing investments, projects and activities within the company.
Stockholm 31st of May 2016
For more information, please contact:
Johan Gillgren
CEO, Josab International AB
+46 (0)8 121 389 00
johan.gillgren@josab.com