City briefs: Xeros and Augean
Rotherham-headquartered sustainable cleaning technology business, Xeros Technology Group, has signed a contract with Girbau SA to license its filtration technology, XFiltra™, for use in commercial laundries.
This deal follows on from a Joint Development agreement signed with Girbau in March 2020. Girbau is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of commercial laundry equipment,
The 10-year contract grants Girbau rights to manufacture and sell a new range of filters incorporating XFiltra technology within the commercial laundry market.
These rights are exclusive in a number of major territories including Europe and North America with non-exclusive rights granted for certain other territories.
Royalties are payable at a fixed amount for each device sold with minimum sales levels also included within the terms of the agreement. First sales are planned in 2021.
Girbau’s XFiltra product, developed in partnership with Xeros, captures more than 90% of all microfibres released during laundry cycles and can be incorporated within, or attached to, individual commercial washing machines.
Alternatively, they can be configured to filter the effluent for entire laundry facilities.
Mark Nichols, chief executive of Xeros, said: “This is major step by Xeros and Girbau, one of the world’s most respected commercial laundry equipment manufacturers, towards helping the world wear better and reduce environmental harm.
“Commercial and domestic laundry processes generate hundreds of thousands of tonnes of microfibre pollution every year, with microfibres now found everywhere on our planet and within the entire trophic range.
“Our announcement today signals the start of a significant step to cut this form of pollution.
“Girbau have been an exemplary development partner for us, sharing our passion for environmental improvement across the fabric and garment value chain.
“Their engineering and product development teams have worked tirelessly, and creatively, to package our technology into a highly effective, easy to use, robust filter which enables commercial laundries to reduce their impact on our planet.”
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A deadline for discussions about a possible acquisition of Wetherby-based waste management business Augean by Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Inc (MSI) has been extended into next month.
As previously reported, on 27 May 2021 MSI said it was in the preliminary stages of considering making an approach regarding a possible offer for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Augean.
MSI was required by the rules to confirm a firm intention to make an offer for Augean, or announce that it does not intend to make an offer by no later than 5pm on 24 June 2021.
Discussions are still ongoing between MSI and Augean, so to allow further time for these discussions to take place, the Board of Augean has successfully requested the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers extend the deadline to 5pm on 22 July 2021.
