February 16, 2023: The Sunlight Group gave details of its latest acquisition on February 14 — taking a 51% controlling stake in Israeli Industrial Batteries Energy Storage Systems.
IIB, which has had a decade-long business relationship with Sunlight, specializes in the assembly and distribution of industrial batteries and energy storage systems in Israel, the Middle East and North Africa region.
The acquisition agreement was signed in Tel Aviv on January 16 by Sunlight CEO Lampros Bisalas and the outgoing CEO of privately-owned IIB, Ady Segal, who is staying with the company as a 49% shareholder, non-executive chairman, and adviser to the new management team.
Erez Pinto is to become IIB’s new CEO and MD.
Sunlight said IIB is a dynamic producer and distributor of industrial batteries for various applications and an Israeli market leader since incorporation in 1992.
IIB has a fully automated plant for the production of lead acid flooded stationary batteries. Sunlight said IIB also holds the lion’s share of the electric forklift batteries market in Israel, as the main supplier for OEM truck dealers and importers including BT-Toyota, Hyster, Yale, Jungheinrich, Linde, and Still.
In addition, IIB is a leading supplier of stationary batteries for UPS and telecoms applications for the Israeli defence ministry and telecoms firms and its portfolio includes innovative aerospace and advanced batteries.
IIB entered the BESS market for renewables in 2004 and started introducing lithium ion batteries into the market for industrial motive and stationary applications in 2020.
The two companies will continue as autonomous commercial entities and collaborate in business across the Israel and MENA regions.
Bisalas said: “This agreement furthers our objective for global leadership in motive power batteries for the intralogistics sector and energy storage systems for renewables.”
Sunlight has been active on the acquisitions trail over the past year, taking full control of its lead acid and lithium ion battery systems operations in Italy in August — finalizing its acquisition of BMG Energy’s 22% stake in Sunlight European Battery Assembly and Sunlight Italy, both based in Verona.
In October, Sunlight subsidiary Technoform acquired Greek battery cases producer Netelco for an undisclosed sum.
Earlier this month, Sunlight announced it had formalized the acquisition of a controlling stake in Germany-based batteries peer Triathlon Holding.