GE Healthcare has acquired BK Medical, a specialist in surgical visualisation, from Altaris Capital Partners for $1.45bn.

BK Medical is an intraoperative imaging and surgical navigation company with headquarters in Boston and Copenhagen and more than 650 employees worldwide. Through ultrasound technology and software algorithms of its active imaging platform, it lets surgeons make real-time, data-based decisions during surgical procedures, resulting in better clinical outcomes and reduced costs for patients, physicians and the healthcare system.

With 40 years of expertise in ultrasound technology, the company has a global installed base of more than 14,000 ultrasound platforms. BK Medical technology is proprietary and protected with more than 136 patent families.

The technology guides clinicians during minimally invasive and robotic surgeries and visualises deep tissue during procedures in neuro and abdominal surgery, and in ultrasound urology.

“Ultrasound today forms an integral part of many care pathways, and BK Medical is a strategic and highly complementary addition to our growing and profitable ultrasound business,” said Kieran Murphy, GE Healthcare CEO. “This transaction helps GE Healthcare continue to expand beyond diagnostics into surgical and therapeutic interventions, simplifying decision-making for clinicians and equipping them with greater insights to deliver faster, more personalised care for their patients, representing another step towards delivering precision health.”

BK Medical CEO Brooks West added: “We are immensely proud of the organisation and of the life-changing technology that we have built at BK Medical, and look forward to our future as part of the GE Healthcare family. Combining our expertise in intraoperative imaging and surgical navigation with GE Healthcare’s many strengths and global presence will accelerate our mission to change the standard of care in surgical interventions. Our mission to help surgeons make critical decisions using active imaging aligns well with GE Healthcare’s mission to help physicians make more informed decisions and improve patient outcomes, and we are eager to begin this new chapter.”

The transaction is expected to create value by strengthening BK Medical, including through synergies with the benefit of GE’s technology and commercial scale. This transaction should enable BK Medical’s active imaging platform to reach more customers and markets around the world, and the combination of GE’s diagnostic imaging technology with BK’s ability to enable decision-making and surgical visualisation in intervention should allow better decision-making throughout the care continuum.

GE Healthcare expects BK Medical to deliver rapid revenue growth as well as margin expansion and free cash flow growth. GE Healthcare also expects high-single-digit return on invested capital by year five.

GE Healthcare ultrasound president Roland Rott said: “Adding the fast-growing and relatively new field of real-time surgical visualisation to GE’s pre- and post-operative ultrasound capabilities will create an end-to-end offering through the full continuum of care, from diagnosis through therapy and beyond. GE Healthcare and BK Medical share a passion for clinical innovation, and I’m excited to welcome BK Medical to our team.”

The parties expect the transaction to close in 2022, subject to review by the relevant regulatory authorities.

Evercore acted as exclusive financial advisor to GE on the transaction. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher acted as legal advisor to GE. JP Morgan Securities served as lead financial advisor, Morgan Stanley served as financial advisor, and Latham Watkins and Schiff Hardin acted as legal advisor to BK Medical.