Darren Stanley - CEO, The Citadel Group
Citadel Group (ASX:CGL) is set to boost its e-health capabilities with the acquisition of Brisbane-based healthcare software-as-a-service vendor Anaesthetic Private Practice, in an all-cash deal worth around $2 million.
Founded in 2010, Anaesthetic Private Practice specialises in the provision of cloud-based practice management and billing solutions for anaesthetists in private practice.
According to Citadel Group, Anaesthetic Private Practice was the first provider of cloud-based SaaS practice management and billing tools to the anaesthetist market in Australia.
The deal is set to see the publicly-listed IT services firm build out its e-health technology offering even further, following the acquisition of specialist oncology e-health systems provider Charm Health in September last year, in a deal worth more than $8 million.
Indeed, the offering provided Anaesthetic Private Practice stands as a “bolt-on” to Citadel Group’s existing e-health capabilities, the company said.
“Key tenets of Citadel’s growth strategy are building scalable intellectual property and expanding our cloud-based SaaS offerings,” Citadel Group CEO Darren Stanley said.
“The acquisition of APP is therefore a logical extension for Citadel as it supports our immediate expansion across the anaesthetist and general eHealth sectors whilst also growing Citadel’s recurring subscription revenue base,” he said.
According to Citadel Group executive deputy chairman Miles Jakeman, although the new acquisition target is a relatively small player, accounting for a six per cent share of the total anaesthetist market in Australia, it is expected to grow under Citadel Group’s ownership.
“Whilst currently small, we see substantial growth potential for APP under Citadel’s ownership and will adopt the same approaches to growth and integration that we used successfully with Kapish’s digital productivity solutions and Charm’s oncology management systems,” Jakeman said.
The company completed the integration of HPE platinum partner Kapish, acquired in July 2016 for $17.5 million.
The latest acquisition comes just over two months after Citadel Group flagged further mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity to underpin its growth strategy going forward.
“We will continue to pursue attractive M&A opportunities as they arise in support of our organic growth strategy,” Stanley, said in a statement to investors in February.
“Our key focus is to add new IP or new clients that support our strategy of providing long-term, scalable information management solutions into complex environments.
“We are adhering to our strategy of investing in repeatable IP in markets where we have incumbency, a track record of success, and a reputation for secure information management,” he said.
