Management Buy-Out at Telemis, a Spin-Off of the Université Catholique de Louvain (« UCL ») and Leader in Medical Imaging

LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE, Belgium, October 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Nivelinvest and Sopartec announced the disposal of their majority stake in Telemis, a spin-off of the division of applied mathematics (ICTEAM) at Université catholique de Louvain. This operation has been carried out in the context of a management buy-out (MBO).

Telemis was founded thirteen years ago as a spin-off of the Université catholique de Louvain on the basis of research undertaken by Professeur Benoit Macq within the Image division of ICTEAM. Telemis has successfully implemented the technologies developed by UCL in its PACS system (Picture Archiving & Communication System) that currently makes the reputation of the company. Telemis' solutions allow healthcare institutions to manage their medical imaging in order to improve the quality of their services. Next to the integrated solutions for sharing, archiving, searching and editing digital images, high-definition videos and other media files, Telemis has recently added a "cloud" data storage service and a secure internet access to its systems.

Since its inception, Telemis has been primarily funded by Nivelinvest and Sopartec, a wholly owned subsidiary of the UCL and manager of VIVES- Louvain Technology Fund. The mission of Sopartec and Nivelinvest is primarily to finance and support spin-offs and SME's in their seed and development phases. Sopartec, through the Louvain Technology Transfer Office ("LTTO") is in charge of the transfer of UCL's technologies while Nivelinvest finances innovative companies in the Walloon Brabant. The complementarities between the shareholders and the management have led to the success of Telemis which is now recognized as a leader in Europe.

The founders, who put their skills to the benefit of the company for many years, wishes to strengthen its commitment to Telemis in order to ensure the company's growth. This management buy-out is part of Telemis' strategy which seeks to accelerate its international expansion.

"It is a great satisfaction to see that the UCL, through its subsidiary SOPARTEC, fulfilled its mission towards society. This is a proof of the important job taken by our University in the economic development of Wallonia" stresses Bruno Delvaux, Rector of UCL.

Philippe Remy, Managing Director of Nivelinvest added: "One of the objectives of Nivelinvest is to finance innovative and promising projects such as Telemis. The international activities of the company have a very positive impact on our region. The handover to the management will enable Telemis to pursue this growth."

The Bank Degroof has advised the selling shareholders for this transaction.

About TELEMIS is specialized in the development of medical imaging software, and more specifically of PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) software. Telemis' products are designed to help hospitals, clinics and private medical practices manage medical imaging, and to eliminate X-Ray films, in order to reduce costs and improve medical healthcare quality. Founded in 1999 as a start-up resulting from academic research, Telemis is located on the campus of the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, and has offices in Paris, Toulouse, Turin, Luxembourg. The company operates closely with the UCL on the development of new technologies. As an integrated IT medical imaging provider, Telemis has equipped around 200 hospitals and medical centres in Europe, Middle East and Africa. http://www.telemis.com

About NIVELINVEST is a private company with mixed capital whose shareholders, beyond the Walloon Region (Sowalfin), are Ackermans & van Haaren, Electrabel and CP Bourg. NIVELINVEST SA is part of the NIVELINVEST group, which offers a wide range of financing solutions, mainly through venture capital, in order to support SME's in the various stages of their development. NIVELINVEST GROUP has EUR 35 million of assets under management. It intervened in Telemis' capital since the very beginning of its operations.

About SOPARTEC-LTTO-VIVES

The Louvain Technology Transfer Office (LTTO ) was created as a partnership between the UCL Research Administration (ADRE) and SOPARTEC SA (http://www.sopartec.com) to connect industry with academic science and transfer UCL's discoveries from the lab to the market. The technology transfer activities contribute to develop new products and solve problems thanks to research initiated by UCL. They foster innovation in combination with high level of research and education. At UCL, the transfer of technologies dates back to the early nineties. More than 50 spinoff companies, which today generate more than 3,000 jobs, contribute to new economic activity and to the development of society. SOPARTEC is also the managing company of a €43m VIVES Louvain Technology Fund, the largest European investment fund ever initiated by a university. VIVES is a multi-sectorial technology investment fund that invests in spin-offs of Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) as well as start-ups in Belgium and neighbouring countries. The objective of the fund is to invest in the development of start-ups, from technological validation through commercial maturity. Please visit : http://www.llto.com http://www.vivesfund.com

About the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL)

Founded in 1425, the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) is one of Europe´s oldest universities. It offers hundreds of educational programmes  to more than 27,000 students from some  120 countries. UCL is ranked 125th in the QS World University Rankings (2011-2012), making it the number one university in the French Community of Belgium. Education, Research and Service to Society are the three fundamental missions of  UCL. Anchored in a tradition of excellence, they have always opened up UCL to its region, Europe and the world. Research is closely  linked to learning and teaching and is the raison d´être and the driving force of the university's activity. Often applied but also implied, research at UCL is the day-to-day activity of responsible and passionate men and women. Whether in the short or long term, research constitutes one of the best investments in economic, social and cultural terms. Financing research, like financing education and health, must count among the highest priorities of a country and constitutes the pride of an advanced society. Please visit : http://www.uclouvain.be

About UCL's Image group of Institute ICTEAM

Benoit Macq is the leader of the Image group of ICTEAM, whose main activity is the development of algorithms and innovative systems in the field of image communications and computer vision.The main research interests of the group are image compression, image watermarking, image analysis for medical and immersive communications. Benoit Macq was General Chair of IEEE ICIP2011 in Brussels. He has been chair of several projects, including Network of Excellence and Integrated Proposal in the Framework Programs of the European Union. He is the co-founder of 9 spin-off companies.

ICTEAM, the Institute of Information and Communication Technologies, Electronics and Applied is currently home for more than 40 professors and more than 200 researchers. These researchers carry out both basic and applied research in key fields of information and communication technologies, electronics, computer science and applied mathematics. http://www.uclouvain.be/en-icteam.html

SOURCE Sopartec