Deutsche Beteiligungs AG invests in radiology group

• Leading regional provider of diagnostic and therapeutic radiology
• Management buyout of a services provider in the healthcare sector
• Growth through acquisition of further radiology practices and additional cooperative projects with hospitals
• First investment by DBAG Fund VII

Frankfurt am Main, 29 March 2017. Deutsche Beteiligungs AG (DBAG) will invest in two radiology practices in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and will merge them into a group. Within the scope of a management buyout (MBO), DBAG and its advised DBAG Fund VII will acquire a majority interest in Radiologische Gemeinschaftspraxis Herne GbR and Ranova Überörtliche Gemeinschaftspraxis für Radiologie und Nuklearmedizin GbR and combine them into one entity. This is the first acquisition by DBAG Fund VII, a 1,010 million euro fund that closed in September 2016. The fund will acquire the interests held by a group of 18 physicians who managed and very successfully developed the two group practices in the past years. All former shareholders will reinvest and own 44 percent in the new company, while DBAG Fund VII will hold the remaining interests. DBAG will initially spend some 15 million euros from its balance sheet for its co-investment and will indirectly hold about eleven percent of the shares. The purchase contract is expected to be completed by mid-year; it requires approval by the cartel authorities and other institutions. The parties to the contract agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

The radiology practices (www.radiologieherne.de, www.ranova.de) operate 15 offices located in various cities in western Germany’s Ruhr area, which are staffed by 87 physicians. Last year, the practices achieved revenues totalling 54 million euros. For more than 40 years, they have provided both outpatient and inpatient care and are partners to private practices as well as hospitals. They offer the complete range of radiological and nuclear medical examinations, therapy and interventions, from conventional X-ray radiography, mammography, ultrasound, radioscopy, angiography and computed tomography (CT) to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The practices’ broad spectrum is not only limited to radiology and nuclear medicine. For difficult and rare medical issues as well as for patients’ special sensitivities (claustrophobia, for example), there are specialists available from   disciplines such as neuroradiology, cardiac radiology, oncology radiology or pediatric radiology, in addition to the required technology (3 Tesla MRI, open MRI, cardiac MRI, coronary CT, PET/CT).

The need for radiological examinations and treatments is increasing. Such examinations are becoming ever more important, both for early detection of serious illnesses as well as for rapid and secure diagnostics in order to quickly start with the best therapy. Patients stand to benefit from the practices’ merger, for example through coordinated appointment procedures. Collectively, the practices can offer high quality standards and provide the services cost-effectively due to their structure and size. The group plans to further build the advantages inherent in the combination through organic development and acquisitions of other practices as well as additional cooperative projects with hospitals.

“The radiology practices have developed dynamically in the past years and are able to meet high quality standards in the provision of their radiology services” said Torsten Grede, Spokesman of the DBAG Board of Management, commenting on the signing last Saturday. “With increasing scale, the high demands required of these capital-intensive medical services can be better met.”

“In DBAG, we have found a partner who will support us in mastering the challenges of the future,” said Dr Thilo Wittkämper, Spokesman of the new radiology group. “This move secures additional capital for us to finance the radiology practices’ ongoing development. That will allow us to reach our most important objective of providing our radiological services to our patients faster and qualitatively better.”