Acquisition · Medical devices (heart and lung testing)
NGK Spark Plug's CAIRE buys heart-lung test maker MGC Diagnostics
- Buyer
- NGK Spark Plug, now Niterra (via CAIRE) (Nagoya, Aichi)
- Target
- MGC Diagnostics, St. Paul, Minnesota
- Value
- About ¥23.7B (about $170M)
- Status
- Completed December 28, 2022.
- Date
- 2022-11-28
NGK Spark Plug agreed to buy MGC Diagnostics, a St. Paul maker of lung function and exercise testing systems founded in 1977, through CAIRE, the US oxygen-equipment company it bought in 2018. The price was about ¥23.6 billion. MGC has more than 200 employees and units in Belgium, Germany, France and Australia.
Why it matters
The spark plug maker is building non-car businesses before electric vehicles shrink demand for engine parts; MGC adds diagnosis to CAIRE's oxygen therapy line.
About MGC
MGC is the second-largest company in the world in cardiorespiratory diagnostics. It makes lung function and exercise testing systems, spirometers, flow sensors, gas analyzers and the supplies they use. It had sales of about ¥8.9 billion and an operating profit of about ¥460 million, with negative net assets.
Diagnosis plus treatment
CAIRE chief executive Earl Lawson said MGC lets the company reach patients early, when lung disease is diagnosed, and then treat them with CAIRE's oxygen therapy products. The purchase was done as a reverse triangular merger through a CAIRE subsidiary. NGK Spark Plug renamed itself Niterra in 2023.
Sources
Kakehashi M&A News home
