Israeli Avnon Group acquires equity stake in South Africa’s UAV maker ALTI

Israeli Avnon Group has acquired an equity stake in South Africa’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems designer and manufacturer ALTI.

Avnon Group which provides military-level intelligence and surveillance information for use by its civilian and military client’s via its subsidiary iSTAR made a statement that it has agreed to acquire a substantial equity stake in ALTI Unmanned Aircraft Systems, an award-winning hybrid UAS developer and manufacturer specializing in vertical take-off and landing UAVs designed for the security and surveillance sector.

This recent collaboration is coming after United States’ Argentech – a systems integrator and UAV training provider, partnered with ALTI to supply the US government with a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) testing vehicle.

In the statement by Avnon, the acquisition by Avnon Group will forge a strong long term partnership ultimately resulting in the development of more advanced aircraft systems.”

“The acquisition is part of Avnon Group strategy to strengthen its position in the drone market and will allow the group to improve competitiveness of solutions and being able of offer a comprehensive solution combining UAVs with other offerings for homeland security (HLS) missions.

“Operations in South Africa will continue and at the same time we will start producing UAVs in a new co-production centre for group subsidiaries in Israel,” Aviad Matza, chief executive of Avnon Group’s HLS division, said. “There is a growing demand for VTOL UAV’s from military and government forces and ALTI has advanced capabilities in this field.”

“We are excited about our new partners. Avnon brings experience and international reach and ALTI will continue to push the boundaries creating world leading unmanned systems” Duran De Villiers, ALTI shareholder and director, said.