Citic Envirotech Ltd (CEL) is to acquire a 20% interest in Century Water Systems & Technologies Pte Ltd, a Singapore-headquartered advanced water treatment engineering firm that specialises in water purification nanofiltration (NF) and pervaporation (PV) membranes and wastewater treatment systems and technologies.
Century, which provides engineering, procurement, construction, operation and maintenance services to industrial customers mainly in the pharmaceutical and semiconductor sectors in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Myanmar and China, will be the first candidate for CEL’s accelerator programme under the group’s wholly-owned subsidiary Singapore Envirotech Accelerator Pte Ltd (SEA).
Citic Envirotech expects to benefit from century’s regional network and strong links to the pharmaceutical and semiconductor sectors.
Having obtained exclusive licenses for both its NF and PV membrane technologies, Century expects to gain strong technological advantages from a successful commercialisation of the technologies.
“SEA was established with the objective of partnering innovative firms to accelerate and commercialise promising environmental technologies drawn from intellectual properties and R&D performed locally and internationally by institutions, industry and technopreneurs,” said Hao Weibao, executive chairman and group CEO of CEL.
“We believe that we have found a good first candidate in Century, whose NF and PV technologies complement our own microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration technologies and we will work closely with Century towards commercialisation of its technology. This partnership also paves the way for us to tap on their expertise to offer an even broader spectrum of filtration solutions for wastewater treatment as well as enable us to leverage on Century’s network in Southeast Asia and strong links to the pharmaceutical and semiconductor sectors to expand our presence in these markets and industries.”
SEA was formed in collaboration with the Singapore Economic Development Board. A wholly-owned subsidiary of CEL, SEA is initially co-funded by an EDB grant and by CEL. SEA’s corporate mission is to identify promising small- and medium-enterprises to fund and mentor and to bring their innovations to market and eventually for a potential listing on the Singapore bourse. CEL has committed to investing S$30 million over four years and employing at least 35 technology personnel for SEA.