Austco expands beyond nurse call with $19.3 million software and aged care deal

Austco assembles its largest acquisition package

Austco Healthcare Limited (ASX:AHC) is putting approximately $12.44 million of upfront cash and new debt behind a two-part expansion into software, aged care and wireless care communications. The company has agreed to acquire RTM, a Brisbane-based real-time monitoring software business, for an estimated total consideration of $15.26 million, while separately agreeing to buy CareTech Systems for an estimated $4.04 million.

The acquisitions are inter-conditional and are expected to complete around 1 December 2026. If completed, they would mark Austco’s most significant acquisition to date and its first purchase of a software technology company. The move extends the company’s acquisition-led expansion after the MCS acquisition, which added a direct sales operation in South Australia.

RTM adds monitoring software and recurring revenue

RTM provides cloud-based software that monitors connected systems across healthcare and aged care facilities, including nurse call, duress, access control, CCTV and building management. Its vendor-agnostic platform has more than 300 system interfaces and is deployed at over 600 sites in Australia, including an interface with Austco’s Tacera platform.

For the 12 months to June 2026, RTM reported unaudited normalised revenue of approximately $15.6 million and EBITDA of approximately $2.2 million, a margin of 14.1%. Austco expects RTM to contribute about $9.1 million of revenue and $1.3 million of EBITDA in FY27, reflecting seven months of ownership. The company plans to offer RTM Cloud to customers in North America, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Asia, as well as through its reseller network.

CareTech fills the lower-cost and wireless product gap

CareTech brings a different asset to the package: owned product designs and intellectual property covering call points, pendants, mats, wireless devices, real-time location tags and complete IP-based systems. Its products are installed at approximately 200 sites and are aimed at aged care operators and smaller hospitals, complementing Austco’s Tacera offering for larger and acute facilities.

CareTech generated unaudited revenue of $3.4 million and normalised EBITDA of approximately $0.9 million in the year to June 2026. Revenue included $1.5 million of sales to RTM, which Austco says would be eliminated on consolidation. After that adjustment, CareTech is expected to contribute approximately $1.1 million of net revenue and $0.5 million of EBITDA in FY27, based on seven months of ownership.

Cash funding leaves earnout and execution questions

Austco will fund the upfront payments from existing cash and a new $12.0 million Market Rate Loan facility from Commonwealth Bank of Australia. No shares will be issued. Following completion of both transactions, Austco expects to retain approximately $7.7 million of cash and $5.0 million of undrawn committed facilities, before any later earnout payments.

Both earnouts are uncapped and payable in cash after Austco releases its audited FY28 accounts. RTM’s earnout is calculated at 6.0 times the average of FY27 and FY28 EBITDA, less the upfront consideration, while CareTech’s uses a 3.5 times multiple. RTM also has a $3.0 million escrow linked to the renewal of a key customer contract for at least 12 months; a lower-value renewal or failure to renew could reduce the purchase price.

Austco says both acquisitions are expected to be earnings per share accretive immediately after completion, but that claim remains dependent on the transactions completing and the businesses delivering against forecasts. RTM will remain standalone through the earnout period to June 2028, while CareTech’s engineering operations will be brought into Austco. The immediate test is therefore not just whether the deals close, but whether Austco can take RTM’s monitoring platform overseas without losing the customer and technical continuity on which the forecasts rely.