What is an Australian fund doing with the Italian Biodefense Electronics?
Elettronica, the Italian company of Benigni, Leonardo and Thales specializing in the electronic defense industry, together with Lendlease, an Austrian fund active in real estate, set up "E4life", the first Italian company active in the biodefense sector. All the details
Elettronica aims to dominate the Biodefense sector in Italy by strengthening the alliance with the Australian fund Lendlease.
The Roman company active in the Electronic Warfare sector led and owned by the Benigni family , and Lendlease, an international real estate, infrastructure and urban regeneration fund based in Sydney, have set up "E4life", the first Italian company active in the Biodefense sector. This was announced in a press release by Elt.
The initial equity of the company, 51% owned by Elt and 49% by Lendlease, is 3.5 million euros, contributed by the two companies for the technological development and business development of the E4Shield project, a patented technology by Elettronica in strategic collaboration with Lendlease.
"The collaboration between the two companies began last year with a partnership based on a common propensity for innovation and sustainability" recalls Elt's note adding that "today the establishment of the newco E4Life demonstrates the will to aim for broader developments in terms of: evolution and expansion of technologies, expansion of effectiveness towards new respiratory viruses and other pathogens and growth in the international market”.
Last June, the company headed by the Benigni family presented E4Shield, a system for inactivating the Covid-19 virus through electromagnetic waves.
The presentation of E4Shield took place in Milan at the Mind Innovation District, one of the major urban regeneration projects in the capital carried out by Lendlease to create an innovation district where the new frontiers of technology and bioscience will converge. The Mind Innovation District will host one of the two offices of the newco E4life.
All the details.
WHAT E4LIFE WILL DO
E4life therefore has the objective of strengthening the technological development of E4Shield, "to expand its effectiveness towards new viruses and other pathogens and to take care of the marketing of the product range at an international level".
"The evolutionary roadmap of E4Shield, which will be carried out by the Newco – explains Elt's note – includes not only new test campaigns for additional viruses, such as avian flu, but also the ambitious goal of mitigating the threat represented by bacteria. Furthermore, E4life, through prestigious international collaborations, is working on the creation of the first sensor capable of detecting viruses and other pathogens present in the air in real time, starting from SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses".
GOVERNANCE
Leading E4life are Vincenzo Pompa, as CEO, and the president Alberto Sangiovanni-Vintelli. The members of the board of directors are Andrea Ruckstuhl, Simone Astiaso and Gianni Maratta.
In addition to the already mentioned Milan office, within the MIND Milano Innovation District, E4life will also have offices in Rome.
WHAT IS E4SHIELD
Thus, at the heart of the Elt-Lendlease company is the development of E4Shield. “The technology was initially thought of as an Anti-Covid solution with 90% inactivation results in the air, but the universal value of the physical principle on which it is based has allowed it to be extended to new respiratory viruses with similar efficacy, such as a representative strain of seasonal influenza. The technology is CE and SAR certified and has already been implemented and sold in the "room" and "portable" versions. A digital development is being finalized, in collaboration with Cy4gate (a company of the ELT group active in the field of cyber security and cyber intelligence), for the remote control of individual devices and the cyber security of the system” reports the Elt note.
Elettronica had recently organized a seminar on biodefense at the headquarters of the General Secretariat of Defense and National Armaments Directorate to present updates on E4Shield technology. The Secretary General of Defense and National Armament Director, General Luciano Portolano, had highlighted during the event "the importance of the Secretariat's commitment to research and technological innovation, in such a way as to be ready to interface the needs increasingly challenging operations and mitigate future threats deriving from pathogens”.
THE STRATEGY OF ELECTRONICS
And Elettronica was ready.
"Elettronica is a company that boasts more than 70 years of experience in the electromagnetic spectrum domain and the creation of this new company is part of the roadmap contained in the Tenet 2030 strategic plan", said Domitilla Benigni, CEO and COO of ELT. “This plan defines the company's goals and ambitions for the next ten years, in particular that of transferring the company's core competencies into new domains, including Biodefense. We are very satisfied with the collaboration with Lendlease, a company that shares the mission of protecting the quality of life”.
THE SUMMITS
The company is led by Enzo Benigni, president and CEO, and by his children Domitilla Benigni, also CEO and coo, and Lorenzo Benigni, Senior Vice President Governmental & Institutional Relations.
THE PARTNERS
With a share capital of 9,000,000 euros, the company is 35.4% controlled by Benigni Srl. The Italian Leonardo owns 31.3% of the company, while 33.3% is in the hands of the French Thales.
In addition to the president Enzo Benigni, the board is made up of: Domitilla Benigni, Roberto Turco, Gabriele Gambarara, Giovanni Soccodato (Leonardo), Andrea Parrella, Alessandra Genco, Philippe Duhamel, Marco De Fazio, Nathalie Charpentier and Hervé Dammann.
WHAT THE LENDLEASE FUND DOES
"This is an extremely interesting and innovative project, which allows a company like Lendlease, operating in the real estate and investment sector, to develop a new business segment like Biodefense" said Andrea Ruckstuhl, Head of Italy and Continental Europe by Lendlease. "As urban developers, we are committed to continuously innovating the most cutting-edge standards that certify the quality and well-being of places, in which it will be increasingly crucial to guarantee integrated and cooperative technological solutions to anticipate and resolve new possible health or climate crises".
Lendlease is one of Australia's largest property developers operating in three main areas of investment, development and construction.
THE STRATEGY
“Accelerating our transition to an investment-driven business is a priority,” Lendlease global CEO Tony Lombardo said last February, quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald . “The high-quality, sustainable product from our development pipeline will be a key driver of our funds growing to more than $70 billion by 2026,” Lombardo said. Lendlease currently manages $33 billion worth of assets, recalls Bebeez.
THE SGR IN ITALY
But E4life is not Lendlease's first Italian project. In 2021, the group started operations of the asset management company Lendlease Italy Sgr, following authorization by the Bank of Italy.
As reported by the Radiocor agency, with a team located in Milan, the asset management company manages two reserved funds with assets for a total value of approximately 450 million euros (both invest in properties in the Milan Santa Giulia area, the subject of a larger project of urban redevelopment). In particular, the Lendlease Global Commercial Italy fund, whose ultimate investor is Lendlease Global Commercial Reit listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange, owns the real estate complex for office use which houses the Sky headquarters.
OTHER ITALIAN PROJECTS IN THE INNOVATION AND MEDICAL FIELDS
In addition to the urban redevelopment project in the Milano Santa Giulia area, as already mentioned, Lendlease is responsible for the private development of the Mind Innovation District together with Arexpo.
At the beginning of May, a partnership was signed with the Bracco Group, world leader in diagnostic imaging, which will bring the historic Made in Italy life science brand to establish itself in Mind in the spaces of the Village North, opening in September 2023.
Again Radiocor recalls that "to date there are over 25 public and private entities present in Mind, including the Human Technopole, the Irccs Galeazzi Santambrogio, the State University of Milan, the Triulza Foundation, the Polytechnic of Milan, the accelerator non-profit of the University of Berkeley Skydeck Europe, the Triulza Foundation, Federated Innovation, the federation of over 40 member companies to share research projects on the principle of collaborating to compete.
Last year, on the occasion of the presentation of the E4Shild technology at the Mind, in the presence of virologists Ilaria Capua and Fabrizio Pregliasco together with representatives of the institutions, the manager of Lendlease Andrea Ruckstuhl declared that "We are particularly proud to present one of the first projects of innovation realized thanks to the MIND Milano Innovation District ecosystem, which made possible the shared development of this pioneering technology in response to an extraordinary global challenge” adding that “As urban developers, we are committed to continuously innovate the most up-to-date standards avant-garde that certify the quality and well-being of places, in which it will be increasingly crucial to guarantee integrated and cooperative technological solutions to anticipate and resolve new possible health or climate crises".
PROBLEMS WITH KOALAS IN AUSTRALIA
However, not everyone seems to like Lendlease's redevelopment projects.
Last March, the Australian fund recorded the exit from the shareholding of Australian Ethical, an ethical investment fund in Australia that sold all its shares in Lendlease Group, arguing that a planned housing project in south-west Sydney threatens a vulnerable koala colony. Australian Ethical, which manages A$8.7 billion ($5.8 billion) in assets, has sold A$11 million worth of Lendlease shares, Bloomberg reported.
For its part, Lendlease said in a statement that its A$35 million investment in conservation in Gilead includes the creation of koala corridors that meet government recommendations for width and connectivity.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/elettronica-biodifesa-fondo-australiano/ on Fri, 26 May 2023 11:19:23 +0000.