Big acquisition news from Denmark: healthcare information technology supplier Cetrea has been acquired by Swedish medical tech giant Getinge and as a result, the Danish startup will be integrated into Getinge under the Maquet brand. The acquisition price amounted to SEK 110 million, which translates to approximately €12 million.
The deal stands out in significance, especially from a homefront point of view: Cetrea’s technology is used by doctors and nurses at more than 70 departments at 21 hospitals in 4 out of the 5 Danish healthcare regions, making it one of Denmark’s major player in the healthcare IT sector, although Cetrea’s client hospitals also include other facilities across the Scandinavian, including the Vaasa Central Hospital in Finland.
In 2013 Cetrea’s sales amounted to about SEK 30 million (~€3.2 million) and the business currently has about 30 employees. However, despite the solid revenue stream, the company’s aims have long been a much larger scale expansion than just the neighbouring countries, something now made possible through Getinge’s considerably larger sales organization.
“This partnership opens up the global market for CETREA’s clinical logistics solution”, says Freddy Lykke, CEO of CETREA A/S and continues “CETREA and its solutions have proven mature and scalable in a local context and this partnership with a global player with advanced technology for OR integration is a perfect fit for the further strategic development of CETREA.”
Cetrea’s IT-solution for hospitals originally began as the iHospital project done by researchers from the Computer Science Department at the University of Aarhus. The project grew in size, eventually leading to the birth of C3A Medical in ‘06, which was then renamed to Cetrea in ‘08.
The company’s products are classified as Clinical Logistics, which is, as the company explains, basically an air traffic control system for hospitals. With increasing amounts of patients, and unchanged if not decreased budgets, hospitals face difficulties maintaining the same level of standards in patient care. IT-solutions like Cetrea’s Clinical Logistics provide healthcare professionals, that is nurses; doctors; clinicians, with the information they need to manage the flow of patient’s effectively.
Markus Medart, President of Surgical Workplaces for MAQUET GmbH commented how the Cetrea’s systems will improve the Getinge service spectrum:
“The integration of Cetrea [to Getinge] will create synergies that enhance the existing Maquet and Getinge healthcare IT businesses and provide a platform for future expansion into attractive hospital IT markets. We plan to bring the Cetrea products to a global market but at the same time keep it true to its roots and loyal initial customers in Denmark”, he said.
Loyalty to Danish customers is surely what the Danes also wish will stick, but whether this will be the case can hardly be predicted just yet. The fact that Cetrea will continue its operations as a Danish registered company does give us clues about any immediate relocations, but global expansion hungry comments suggest otherwise.
“Taking CETREA globally will be an exciting adventure and we are looking forward to bringing our innovative technology to a global market, while integrating ideas from new markets into our product roadmap”, says Thomas Riisgaard Hansen, CTO and co-founder of CETREA A/S.
Headquartered in Rastatt, Germany, Maquet is the largest subsidiary of the publicly listed Getinge Group AB of Sweden. Maquet generated about €1.54 billion in 2013, representing more than half of the Getinge Group’s annual revenue of €2.9 billion.
