Dental products companies continue international growth and expand scale through acquisition.
Having just wrapped up another bi-annual International Dental Show in Cologne, Germany, attendees are now trying to make sense of the notes they accumulated from dozens of meetings and discussions around the exhibit halls.
Dental product company valuations are as healthy as ever, and have stabilized at robust levels for the past few years. At the midpoint, public companies are trading for 2.1x revenue and 16x EBITDA while recent transactions are tracking at 3.8x and 12.2x, respectively. Since mid-2014 our Dental Products Index has risen 58% compared to a 26% increase in the S&P 500.
The overall dental products space is expected to grow at an annualized rate of 2.9%, and in 2019 the sector is forecasted to reach $55 billion.1 Some specialties are expected to see much faster growth, such as orthodontic supplies, which are expected to grow 8%.2 Growth drivers include demographic trends in the developing world, as middle class disposable income rises and new technologies become available.