Gilde Healthcare's RAD-X joins busy radiology pipeline

The sale is likely to attract the interest of consolidators backed by infrastructure funds including EQT’s Meine Radiologie and DWS Infrastructure’s Medipass, said a fifth source, as well as private equity-backed assets like Telemos Capital’s MedEuropa.

Infra funds have become interested in these assets because of the long cash flow predictability, said a sixth source, adding that as bidders, infra funds have a strong competitive advantage due to the lower returns required.

The sponsor formed RAD-X in 2016, growing it to 14 sites across Germany and Switzerland largely through a buy-and-build rollup. It has around EUR 15m-EUR 20m EBITDA, said one of the sources.

The company’s founder and CEO Martin Hardens will likely want to stay on board as he was one of the first to talk about consolidating the imaging sector and has driven much of the company’s growth, said a seventh source.

Lincoln International, Gilde Healthcare and RAD-X did not respond to a request for comment.

EQT already owns two German radiology platforms through its infrastructure arm, after it bought Meine Radiologie from Triton and Blikk from DBAG last year to merge the assets. It signed those deals at 15x-17x EBITDA multiples, according to an eight source.

The sponsor then bolted on a carve-out of Aleris’ radiology arm in the Nordics at 11x EBITDA, as reported by Unquote.

DWS Infrastructure has also recently moved its Italian radiology and radiotherapy asset Medipass into Germany, by acquiring RadioOnkologieNetzwerk. Both Medipass and MedEuropa have a strong radiotherapy segment, unlike RAD-X.

In Switzerland, Naxicap Partners acquired Groupe 3R, which the year prior had EBITDA of around EUR 9m, as reported.

At the large-mid cap side of the market, Belgian investor GBL recently acquired Affidea, a pan-European radiology company with upwards of EUR 100m EBITDA, and family office AP Moeller bought Unilabs with EUR 600m EBITDA. Both of those groups have operations in Switzerland but neither has in Germany.

In healthcare services, attention has very much moved away from ophthalmology towards other rollup plays that are more fragmented and have the same defensive traits, said a ninth source.

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