Irish-founded medtech firm to float as part of merger
IRISH-FOUNDED medtech business Lincor Solutions is to float on the Australian Stock Exchange as part of a transformative merger.
The company, set up by a group of former employees in Apple’s Cork facility, moved its headquarters from Ireland to Nashville in 2013.
Now it is joining up with a healthcare arm of Australian-listed tech company Hills. The new entity — to be called Lincor Limited — will be listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.
Lincor makes TV-style devices to entertain patients as well as provide them with information about their treatment.
The business it is merging with, Hills Healthcare Solutions, makes nurse call software as well as entertainment products.
Lincor chief executive Chris Cashwell said the deal secured the company’s position in a key market and would allow Lincor to “accelerate its growth in the emerging global healthcare sector for patient engagement”.
Cashwell will remain as chief executive of the new entity.
The share capital of the new entity will be split around 50-50 between Lincor and Hills shareholders, before it moves to raise an undisclosed amount of capital from the market. The new company will be debt-free.
The money raised will be used to “provide financial flexibility, repay debt, pay transaction costs and accelerate global growth,” the companies said in a statement.
Hills chairwoman Jennifer Hill-Ling said: “While our expanding healthcare solutions operations have the potential to become a key profit driver within Hills in coming years, the opportunities for the healthcare business and its growth potential are much greater as part of Lincor Limited on a global basis.”
Lincor was set up in 2003 by former Apple employees Pat O’Donnell, Enda Murphy and Dan Byrne. Byrne had flagged an ambition to float the company as far back as 2008.
It moved to Nashville — though retaining Irish offices — in 2013 after raising over €7m from venture capital firm Edison Ventures (now called Edison Partners), saying the deal would enable it to aggressively expand its presence in the United States.
The merger follows a partnership agreement between Lincor and Hills in 2014 giving Hills the exclusive rights to distribute Lincor products in Australia.
Lincor has installed its products in around 150 healthcare facilities around the globe.