Chinese medical equipment maker Mindray Medical International (NYSE: MR) will meet difficulties in introducing products of ZONARE Medical Systems, Inc. into the Chinese market directly.
The New York-listed firm put US-based ultrasound system developer ZONARE into pocket for USD 105 million recently after a three-year-long negotiation and Guang Chengming, CEO of it, said in an interview that the global high-end ultrasound system sector was manly dominated by GE Healthcare, Philips, and Siemens and there was no exception in the Chinese mainland. It would launch new ultrasound products in the market after the deal in a bid to enter the high-end ultrasound system sector. In line with industry observers, the acquisition will help it expand in terms of technology, product line as well as market share in the North American market. However, it will not be an easy job for it to introduce products of the target into the Chinese market directly as the latter was mainly engaged in the development and sale of portable color ultrasound products but only large-sized ultrasound products are widely used there currently.
It began launching mergers and acquisitions (M&As) after debuting on the New York bourse in September 2006, thus acquiring ZONARE was not the first M&A launched by it. Actually, launching M&As has become a major way for it to expand since 2008. In 2008, it acquired US-based Datascope and through the deal, it had a direct-sale channel in the US. It began launching M&As in the domestic market in March 2011 and in the year, it launched four M&As. The figure reached five in 2012 and through the deals, it stretched out reach to four fields, namely life information, clinic examination, digital ultrasound, and radiological image. LI Xiting, president and co-CEO of it, said that it would focus on clinic medical business in the long run. It aimed at an annual sales revenue of over CNY 10 billion in 2016, thus launching M&As would be a major way for it to expand in the future. The original intention and the aim for it to launch M&As overseas would be gaining advanced patent technologies and extending product line, each.
Available data shows that its net operating revenue reached USD 242.1 million as at the end of March 2013, up 10.5 percent from a year ago. The net profit was USD 57.4 million, representing a yearly rise of 57 percent. It saw net profit growth exceed 30 percent in each of the past few years and about 50 percent of operating revenue reaped last year be from the domestic market.
