Investment groups Gimv (Antwerp / Belgium; www.gimv.be) and Mérieux Développement (Lyon / France; www.merieux-developpement.com) have set up a medical technology supplier, the SGH Healthcaring group. The finance companies aim to develop a European market leader for the development and manufacturing of plastic devices for administering liquid and solid medicines.

The two groups acquired Stiplastics Healthcaring (Saint-Marcellin / France; www.stiplastics.com) in January 2018. At the time, the company had around 90 employees with a sales volume of EUR 21m. Following completion of the transaction, SGH Healthcaring was set up after consultation with the management, which is now being expanded into a group.

At the end of June, the investment companies announced the next acquisitions under SGH Healthcaring. The double takeover of Rovipharm (Val-Revermont / France; www.rovipharm.com) and RR Plastiques (Corveissiat / France) is expected to raise the group's sales to around EUR 40m in 2018. Financial details of the transactions were not disclosed. Rovipharm specialises in medication dosage pipettes and RR Plastiques is a specialist for droppers to dispense ear and eye care solutions. Médicos (Lyon; www.groupemedicos.com), a packaging group for the cosmetics and food industries, is retaining RR Plastiques’ applications for the cosmetics sector.

According to the companies, the buys make up the "first major milestone in the roadmap" for creating a large group to meet the health industry's growing demands. "These two acquisitions mark a first step in our ambitious growth," says Jérôme Empereur, chairman and CEO at SGH Healthcaring.