AFP Imaging acquires dental CT firm

Quantitative Radiology is now part of AFP Imaging. Purchase of the Italian firm, which has installed about 500 conebeam CT scanners for dental applications over the past decade, is being framed as a coup by AFP chairman and cofounder David Vozick.

AFP paid €13 million, or about $17.2 million, for Quantitative, about just six times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, according to Vozick, who described the deal as fair.

"This is really a coup," he said. "A lot of deals go for more than six times EBITDA."

Behind the deal is a family of scanners called NewTom, which have been cleared for sale in the U.S., Europe, and other parts of the world. The Italian company recently added a new version called the Vertical Generation. Unveiled at two major dental trade shows earlier this year, NewTom VG, which is mounted on a vertical stand, allows the patient to be scanned while standing or sitting, rather than lying down.

Quantitative Radiology builds the systems in Verona and distributes the product globally through dealers and other contracted firms. Most NewTom users are dentists, implantologists, oral surgeons, and orthodontists, as well as some ear, nose, and throat specialists. They make up an annual global market for such CTs of about $100 million, according to AFP.

For the past year, AFP has been the exclusive distributor of NewTom in North America. Now, with a firm grip on the company and its product development, Vozick plans to expand the reach of this technology.

"The Italian company did not aggressively pursue the nondental markets," Vozick said.

"We will."

AFP is represented in the ENT marketplace by Gyrus under a nonexclusive distribution agreement. It will also position NewTom in dentistry for what Vozick describes as the coming age of robotic surgery.

"There is going to be robotic dentistry just as we have robotic surgery in hospitals," he said.