Opto Circuits to buy European medical equipment company

Bangalore: Opto Circuits India has signed a non-binding letter of intent to acquire a European medical equipment company. It said that the proposed acquisition of 100 per cent ownership of the company was estimated to cost $100 million.

The company last Thursday deferred its decision to raise funds until it reached an understanding with the European company. The company had not indicated the exact amount to be raised for its acquisitions.

To build its range of critical care and cardiac care equipment, Opto has been on an acquisition spree in the past 2-3 years, besides its strategy on technology transfers.

“We continue to focus on the patient monitoring segment, which is a $1-trillion market, besides cardiac-related devices,” said a company official.

The company had bought US-based Criticare Systems Inc for about $70 million earlier this year, which gave it a presence in non-invasive equipment like vital sign monitors, anaesthesia monitors and pulse oximeters.

Opto had acquired German stent manufacturer Eurocor in 2006 for a consideration of Rs 60.9 crore. After having acquired the US-based Criticare Systems earlier this year, Optowas scouting for more buy-outs.

The company plans to shift the manufacturing facility to India. Criticare earlier did its manufacturing out of Taiwan, and this is now being brought to India.

According to an earlier announcement, the medical diagnostics and interventional products company has plans to set up a Rs 400-crore special economic zone at Nanjanagud near Mysore, where it plans to establish new manufacturing facilities for various health care and hardware electronic products, he said.