DANIEL ISHAG, an entrepreneur who made tens of millions by selling his online advertising business, is to float a biological company with technology that can cleanse waste water.

Bluewater Bio International is aiming to float on the Alternative Investment Market in the next few weeks, valuing the business at about £25m.

Its technology uses bacteria found naturally in soil to cleanse waste water. It claims to remove 99% of biological contamination in waste water and to be more effective than other nitrogen and phosphate systems.

The company, advised by the investment banks Strand Partners and Jeffries, said its system is being used and tested at 20 plants in South Korea, Japan and China. These include industrial and sewage plants as well as agricultural sites. It is also targeting food processing companies, breweries, hospitals and textile manufacturers.

Bluewater claims the technology can lead to savings of about 30% of operational costs and reduce investment costs in water treatment by 15%.

It has applied for patents to protect its technology and claims it has a three-year technical lead over some rivals. It also aims to exploit increasingly stringent legislation for the treatment of industrial waste, and the trend of development banks and the International Monetary Fund to link aid packages to waste treatment initiatives.

Funds raised from the float will be used to further develop and market the business.

Ishag is chief executive, while Adrian Collins, a serial director and former fund manager, is the chairman.

Ishag sold Espotting Media, an online advertising company, to Findwhat.com, an American company, for $170m (£82m) in 2003 – only three years after setting up Espotting Media.

Espotting devised software to power internet search engines and developed a system where online advertisers could bid against each other to secure top billing for key search terms such as “loan”, “holiday” or “car”.

Before launching Espotting with a childhood friend, Ishag was an investment banker.

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