Sivantos and Widex Announce Merger

Sivantos, a Germany-based hearing aid maker previously owned by Siemens will merge with Widex, a Denmark-based hearing aid maker to form a company with an enterprise value of more than $8b. Sivantos, owned by EQT Partners, and Widex are merging to form the 3rd largest hearing aid maker. The merger will likely push back EQT’s plans for an IPO of Sivantos by a few years, as the two companies integrate. Increasing R&D investment may allow Sivantos and Widex to compete better with William Demant and GN Store Nord, the industry leaders (both Danish), in areas such as bluetooth and sensors. Other players include Cochlear (Australia), Starkey (US), MED-EL (Austria), SeboTek Hearing Systems (US), Audina Hearing Instruments (US), RION (Japan), Horentek (Italy), Microson (Spain), and Arphi Electronics (India). Hearing aid makers are hoping to attract younger customers by capturing of healthcare data using sensors in the devices. The hearing aid market is expected to reach $9.8b by 2022 from $7.0bin 2017 at a CAGR of 7.0%. There will be more than 10,000 employees worldwide, including 800 in R&D.

Keywords: Healthcare Investment Banking, Healthcare M&A, Healthcare mergers