IVF pioneer Genea sells for more than $250 million

Australian fertility group Genea has been successfully sold to an Asian consortium for more than AU$250 million after disrupting the fertility industry with a range of new IVF technologies.

MW Consortium – comprised of Hong Kong-listed health and wealth conglomerate Mason Group, Chinese online health platform WeDoctor and other investment firms – bought 89.5% of shares in Genea’s Fertility and Biomedx businesses.

The deal comes nine years after Genea, a leading fertility treatment provider for more than 30 years, partnered with Planet Innovation to transform its business from an IVF clinical organization to also marketing IVF technology products.

Led by CEO Tomas Stojanov, Genea launched Genea Biomedx and worked with Planet Innovation to develop a family of industry-changing products that help standardize and automate the IVF process. This includes the award-winning Gavi, the world’s first automated embryo vitrification system (pictured below), and Geri, an incubator with time-lapse embryo imaging.

Tomas said the deal with MW Consortium would allow for the ongoing growth of Genea as one of the world’s leading integrated IVF companies.

“With the Consortium, Genea is confident it has the right partners for the next stage of its growth, allowing more patients access to our technology and success rates and providing greater opportunities for doctors and staff,” Tomas said.

In an announcement to shareholders in October 2018, Mason Group said investing in Genea would expand its footprint as a leading IVF medical platform in the Asia Pacific region, where demand for IVF technology and services is growing.

“This transaction marks a crucial step towards the Group’s ultimate vision — becoming a world-class conglomerate offering ‘‘Health + Wealth’’ solutions,” the statement read.

Planet Innovation will continue to be Genea Biomedx’s development and manufacturing partner under the new ownership. Co-CEO Sam Lanyon congratulated Genea and MW Consortium on the sale.

“This is a great result for Tomas and the team at Genea. It reflects their commitment to building a successful business that has transformed the industry, and shows that the calculated risk taken in diversifying into IVF technology development has really paid off,” Sam said.

“It’s fantastic that hopeful parents around the world will soon have access to Genea’s fertility expertise and the innovative Genea Biomedx family of products.”