Souter Investments, the private equity focused family investment office, has backed Duke Street to acquire AGITO Medical (“AGITO”), a market leading European medical imaging business, from Philips.
AGITO provides high quality, flexible imaging equipment solutions for hospitals, clinics, and distributors world-wide, providing rental solutions, pre-owned imaging equipment, spare parts to the international healthcare industry.
The acquisition of this top European business comes at a pivotal growth point within the healthcare sector. Europe's medical imaging rental market is currently worth approximately €500m. It is predicted to grow by 6-7% over the next few years, with diagnostics becoming a critical first step in clinical pathways enabling earlier intervention and better health outcomes.[1] The injection of investment into AGITO will further strengthen its capability and capacity to provide both quality equipment and highly skilled radiographers, ensuring the business can address healthcare providers’ complex needs.
Souter’s fifth deal with lead investor Duke Street, a leading European mid-market private equity group, AGITO was founded in 2004 in Aalborg, Denmark, with a mission to offer healthcare practitioners and their service providers cost-efficient imaging equipment and spare parts.
AGITO offers flexible, tailored rental of high-quality mobile imaging equipment across CT, MRI, and CathLabs, with or without additional services such as staffing. With a large fleet of the latest mobile magnetic resonance scanning products, including a state-of-the-art helium-free solution, AGITO’s expert team manages the full asset lifecycle on behalf of clients, from rental to pre-owned purchase to, resale, and repair.
Philips acquired AGITO in 2018 with the business growing into one of Europe's top three medical imaging rental businesses. Its operations span multiple international markets, delivering for clients across more than 10 countries including Germany, France, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. Today, the company has 47 employees and a fleet of nearly 50 rental units.
James Almond, Managing Partner at Duke Street, commented:
“We are very pleased to acquire AGITO, a market-leading business that we believe represents a significant opportunity for Duke Street and our investors. Our investment in AGITO represents a classic Duke Street deal: a carve-out from a globally recognised business, acquisition of an excellent healthcare product and a talented team that we back, fuelled by an investment programme that will create value for all. This business has great potential to scale further and cement its position as a core partner to public and private health systems across Europe. The Duke Street team and I look forward to working closely with the team at AGITO to realise that opportunity.”
Maurice Shamash, Investment Director at Souter Investments, commented:
“The pressures on health systems globally are well publicised. Improving timely access to effective modern medical imaging and diagnostic services will be a key factor in meeting these challenges. AGITO’s high quality imaging solutions provide critical diagnostic imaging capacity to provide solutions which help to improve health outcomes. We are delighted to be working with Duke Street again, and look forward to supporting AGITO and its team as they continue to grow, invest, and enhance AGITO’s equipment fleet and services.”
The transaction remains subject to certain customary closing conditions. The terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
About Souter Investments
Souter Investments is one of the UK’s leading family investment offices specialising in private equity. Founded in 2006, Souter has invested over £500m in more than seventy unquoted companies and currently has significant investments in over forty businesses, acting either as the lead investor or as a partner for other financial sponsors.
The AGITO acquisition continues an active period of investment activity for Souter including the acquisition of Premier Hytemp, a global leader in precision engineered alloy components; partnering with MML Infrastructure to acquire Premier Modular a leading provider of leasing and permanent modular building solutions; continuing its long running relationship with Duke Street to acquire Suir Engineering, a leading provider of innovative mechanical, electrical and instrumentation engineering solutions serving renewable energy, data centre and pharmaceutical clients.
For more information, please visit www.souterinvestments.com
For Souter Investments press enquiries please contact:
David Gaffney, Charlotte Street Partners
David.Gaffney@charlottestreetpartners.com
About Duke Street
Duke Street has backed growth in mid-market Western European businesses for over twenty years. The firm’s investment strategy is concentrated on four sectors: Consumer, Healthcare, Industrials & Engineering, and Services. Typically, Duke Street invests in companies with an enterprise value of between £50m - £350m, with the aim to transform the prospects of the companies that it invests in.
For Duke Street press enquiries please contact:
Felix Meston, Seven Dials City
+44 78415 18337
ENDS
[1] Source: Candesic