Siemens AG has announced a plan for its Siemens Healthineers business to go public in the first half of the year, according to a company statement. It’s not the first time the German medical imaging and diagnostic business has made its intentions to file an IPO known, but perhaps the company is betting on a more receptive audience in the current market.
The floatation is planned for the Frankfurt Stock Exchange
“Siemens Healthineers is now ready for its market debut”, said Michael Sen, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Siemens Healthineers and member of the Siemens Managing Board in the press release. “Siemens Healthineers is a premium asset and we have worked hard to now list such an exciting franchise. We expect the business to capitalize on its strengths even more effectively after the listing.”
The company’s revenues added up to €13.8 billion ($17 billion) in fiscal year 2017, which ended September 30.
The Healthineers division of Siemens includes medical imaging, diagnostics, telehealth and population health management. Last year, it acquired population health management business Medicalis Corp., a company based in San Francisco, California, and Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.
Prior to Medicalis, Healthineers had joined forces with IBM Watson Health on a population health initiative to jointly develop technology and services to support healthcare providers in value-based environments across analytics, reporting and patient engagement.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Reuters reported that the value of the IPO is expected to be somewhere between $44 billion and $50 billion. Although the IPO market for medtech and diagnostics companies has slowed in recent years, Healthineers’ diversity in imaging, advanced therapies, and population health could work in its favor.
