Siemens has agreed to sell its hearing aid business to investment company EQT and Santo Holding, the investment arm of Germany’s Strüngmann family, for around €2.15bn.

Siemens

The new owners will continue to use the Siemens product brand for the hearing aid business over the medium term, as part of the agreement.

With preferred equity of €200m, Siemens will remain invested in the hearing aid business, and benefit from future business successes.

Siemens Healthcare CEO Hermann Requardt said: "In the past years Siemens Healthcare has invested significantly in its audiology business. Both EQT with the Wallenberg family as anchor investor and the Strüngmann family have outstanding reputations and extensive experience in the healthcare sector.

"Not only is the transaction excellent from a financial perspective; we’re also convinced that both investors have a clear growth strategy for further developing the hearing aid business over the long term."

Siemens globally active audiology business has generated revenue of around €693m and reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of €145m in fiscal 2014.

Expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2015, the transaction still requires regulatory approval.

Siemens introduced the first hearing instrument, Esha-Phonophor in 1913, and also launched the first wireless technology that synchronized hearing aids in both ears in 2004.


Image: Siemens’ headquarters, Munich. Photo: courtesy of Rufus46.