GE Healthcare acquires XPRO

Today, GE Healthcare announced the acquisition of XPRO, a Brazilian Interventional X-ray equipment manufacturer company with over 15 years of experience and with more than 120 systems installed at private customer sites. Combining XPRO's Interventional X-Ray product capabilities with GE Healthcare's complementary imaging technology and global distribution presence, this acquisition brings a significant enhancement of offerings in Brazil while creating a broader platform that will address access and quality challenges in emerging interventional X-ray segments. Terms of this transaction were not disclosed.

"We are very excited to welcome XPRO to GE. XPRO is a company with strong talent and capability and is well known in Brazil for delivering product and services, with both quality and value. This acquisition is very complementary to our existing product portfolio and helps to enhance a set of products that allow our global customers -particularly those in emerging markets-to build minimally invasive (MIS) capability, increase patients access to MIS, while also reducing costs," said Hooman Hakami, President & CEO, GE Healthcare -Detection & Guidance Solutions (DGS).

XPRO will be part of GE Healthcare's Detection & Guidance Solutions (DGS) business. DGS is a US$2B global business, made up of 8 separate business segments, currently employing over 1,700 employees. The DGS business distributes products and services in all geographies, and has engineering and manufacturing capability in the US, France, Hungary, India and China. XPRO will expand DGS' engineering and manufacturing presence in Brazil, and add an additional 132 employees.

"At GE Healthcare we are committed to developing more targeted technologies that will help provide more access to quality healthcare, at a lower cost. The combined capabilities of GE and XPRO are a perfect example of this. This acquisition not only reinforces our commitment to growing our footprint in important countries like Brazil, but it also shows how we continue to take strong local capability --like those that exist at XPRO --combine them with our complementary imaging capabilities and global reach, and use this combination to help address healthcare challenges around the world," commented Rogério Patrus, President & CEO for GE Healthcare Latin America.

Benefiting from an excellent quality and customer service reputation, XPRO, with an installed base of over 120 systems (analog and digital), currently supports local Brazilian private customers including hospitals and clinics, allowing clinicians to equip themselves with enhanced-guidance, economically-viable products.

"GE Healthcare Detection & Guidance Solutions and XPRO are highly complementary. Our value products have been strategically developed with our local customers needs in mind and GE is broadly recognized for its capabilities in R&D and distribution. With GE Healthcare's proven track record in China and India for improving access to new technologies, we are confident that our combined know-how will reinforce our offering and positioning not only in Brazil but also in other emerging countries globally," said Sandro Moraes, President, XPRO.

According to Reinaldo Garcia, President & CEO for GE Latin America, "XPRO's acquisition fits into GE´s strategy of establishing presence in Latin America, and certainly in Brazil, one of the largest economies in the world. It continues to increase our footprint and capabilities adding to the many development and production sites, as well as the 20,000 people we have in the region. We are particularly excited about making this already important healthcare technology company a very significant base for our product development and exports from Brazil to the world."