Midea's Esaote deal puts its stake at 87.73% through a vehicle Wandong already part owned
Midea completed its Esaote purchase on 9 October. Competition filings show a 77.5% acquisition of a Shanghai holding company that Wandong already part owned. Esaote has been Chinese owned since 2018. No price is disclosed.
Headlines say Midea has "completed the acquisition" of Esaote. The filings describe a stake below 100%.
The ACCC register entry for the Australian waiver says the purchase "will result in Midea Group Co., Ltd. (Midea) owning 87.73% of the issued share capital of Esaote S.p.A." That describes the intended outcome. The ACCC, Australia's competition regulator, published it on 21 May, months before completion. Esaote's release of 9 October speaks only of "the controlling stake".
The deal consolidates a Chinese ownership chain that Esaote already sat in. The deal lets Midea combine its medical imaging businesses. That means ultrasound, X ray, CT and MRI under one roof.
The two filings count the 77.5% from different bases. The Australian entry names Midea Imaging Technology (Shanghai) as the entity that "proposes to indirectly acquire 77.5% of the issued share capital of Esaote S.p.A.". It says the acquisition "will result in" Midea owning 87.73% of Esaote.
The Moroccan Competition Council's summary applies the 77.5% to "the capital and voting rights" of Shanghai Lu Zi Enterprise Management Consulting Center, which controls Esaote. It adds that afterwards the affiliated entities controlled by Midea will hold 100% of that Shanghai company. One affiliated entity, Beijing Wandong Medical Technology, currently holds 22.5% of it.
Neither text gives the share of Esaote that sits inside the Shanghai company. So the Moroccan 100% and the Australian 87.73% cannot be reconciled using these pages alone. The records do support three points: a holding company, a 22.5% stake in it that a Midea affiliate already owned, and an end state of 87.73% of Esaote.
The register entry lists Shanghai Lu Zi next to Esaote as a target. Among the other parties it names two Wansheng vehicles, Wansheng Medical Investments (Italy) S.p.A. and Wansheng Medical Investments (Hong Kong) Limited. It also names Midea Group (Shanghai), Midea Medical Technology (Shanghai), Carestream Healthcare International and Wandong.
The Moroccan summary describes Esaote as a Genoa registered group working mainly in ultrasound, MRI and health information technology. It describes Midea as a company listed in Shenzhen and Hong Kong with a healthcare division among its businesses. Between Midea and the Italian operating company, the filings show the Shanghai company, the Wandong stake and the Wansheng entities. They describe the first two in more detail than the third.
Esaote was already owned by a Chinese consortium. In April 2018 a Chinese consortium completed the purchase of its share capital. The 2018 release describes the members as major companies in the medical and healthcare technology sectors alongside investment funds. It names Yufeng Capital, Wandong, Shanghai FTZ Fund, Tianyi, Yuyue and Kangda.
Wandong, now described by the Australian entry as Midea's listed affiliate, was one of the six. A Midea affiliate has therefore been among Esaote's owners since 2018. The headquarters has not moved. Esaote's release says it "will be part of Midea Healthcare and will continue to operate as an independent global medical equipment company, headquartered in Genoa". Franco Fontana remains chief executive.
A consortium of investors and a strategic group that also owns the neighbouring product lines are different kinds of owner. The Australian entry makes the difference concrete. It describes the group's imaging business as supplying MRI, CT, digital subtraction angiography and digital radiography, mainly in mainland China through Wandong. It places Carestream, a worldwide provider of medical imaging systems, in the same group.
Esaote supplies ultrasound, open and dedicated MRI systems and medical IT. Together those products cover most of a radiology department's needs. A hospital tendering for Esaote ultrasound or MRI can now be quoted X ray, CT and high field MRI by the same group. Midea can bundle across a tender where Esaote alone could not.
Esaote is a mid sized business. Its release gives revenue of EUR 267m for 2025, with 70% of it international. The company has about 1,160 staff.
About 20% of the workforce works in research and development. R&D spending is near 12% of revenue. That is about EUR 32m a year, a serious engineering budget for a company of this size. It is also the part of the business a platform buyer is most likely to want to keep intact.
Revenue for 2023 was EUR 273.2m, according to the accounts approved at the assembly on 24 April 2024, so 2025 revenue is about 2.3% lower.
Those 2023 accounts showed EBITDA, or earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, of EUR 41.7m. That is an EBITDA margin of about 15%. The operating result was EUR 13.4m and net profit was EUR 6.2m.
Midea is a far larger group, with global revenue for 2025 of about USD 64.3 billion according to the same release. The logic of the purchase is strategic. Esaote brings ultrasound and dedicated MRI systems for musculoskeletal and extremity imaging, which the Australian entry lists as its main products.
Neither company has disclosed what Midea paid. So there is no multiple, the price as a ratio of earnings, to set against other medical imaging deals.
The regulatory record is easier to date. The Australian waiver was notified on 7 May 2026 and approved on 21 May.
The Moroccan Competition Council published its summary on 7 May, with comments invited until 18 May. Esaote's release says the acquisition was completed on 9 October.
Esaote's accounts for 2026 will be the first to cover the completion. The assembly set a 24 April 2024 precedent for the 2023 accounts. If it repeats that timing, shareholders will see the results in late April 2027 with revenue to be set against the EUR 267m reported for 2025.