Austco Healthcare, the ASX-listed maker of nurse call systems, said on October 16, 2026 that it had signed a binding agreement to buy all the shares of RTM Hold Co, the parent of Real Time Monitoring Solutions and Real Time Monitoring Cloud, together known as RTM.
The estimated total price is A$15.26 million (about $9.9 million), all in cash. Austco will pay A$9.44 million (about $6.1 million) upfront and an uncapped earnout estimated at A$5.82 million (about $3.8 million). The earnout is set at six times the average of RTM's EBITDA for the 2027 and 2028 financial years, less the upfront payment, so the final figure could be higher or lower.
Completion is targeted for around December 1, 2026. It depends on Austco also completing its purchase of CareTech Systems, a smaller Brisbane nurse call designer announced the same day. RTM's management and technical staff are expected to stay under executive services agreements.
What RTM built
RTM is a Brisbane provider of real-time monitoring, reporting and systems-integration software for hospitals and aged care facilities. Dealroom reported that the company was founded in 2012.
Its cloud platform watches every connected system on a site, including nurse call, duress alarms, access control, CCTV and building management, and flags faults before staff notice them. It works with equipment from many vendors, with a library of more than 300 system interfaces, including one for Austco's own Tacera platform. Dealroom said RTM's software is used at more than 600 sites in Australia.
In the 12 months to June 2026, RTM produced about A$15.6 million (about $10.1 million) of normalised revenue and A$2.2 million (about $1.4 million) of EBITDA, according to the announcement. Each installation brings ongoing licence, maintenance and support fees.
Why Austco is buying
Austco described RTM as its most significant acquisition to date and its first purchase of a software technology company, and said it speeds up the group's shift towards software and recurring revenue. StockWire X noted that Austco's earlier deals had mostly involved buying resellers of its nurse call products.
Austco plans to sell RTM Cloud through its operations in North America, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Asia and through its global network of resellers. It expects the deal to add to earnings per share immediately.
The companies already trade with each other. CareTech, the second business Austco is buying, made A$1.5 million of its A$3.4 million revenue in the 2026 financial year from sales to RTM, revenue that will disappear in Austco's accounts once both deals close.
How the deal is paid for
No Austco shares are being issued. The company will fund the upfront payments from its cash and a new A$12.0 million (about $7.8 million) loan facility from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. After completion it expects to have about A$7.7 million in cash and A$5.0 million of undrawn facilities, before any earnout payments.
Part of the price is tied to one customer. If a key RTM contract has not been renewed by completion, A$3.0 million (about $1.9 million) of the upfront payment goes into escrow. If the contract is renewed at a lower annual licence value or not renewed at all, some or all of that money returns to Austco and the price falls. The escrow has a 24-month longstop.
The founders of RTM, and any outside investors, were not named in the coverage of the deal.
The second, smaller deal
CareTech Systems, the other Brisbane business in the package, designs nurse call products and systems for aged care homes and smaller hospitals. Austco is paying A$3.0 million (about $1.9 million) upfront for it, with an estimated earnout of about A$1.04 million taking the total to roughly A$4.04 million. Unlike the resellers Austco has bought before, CareTech owns its product designs and intellectual property, so Austco will keep the full margin on items such as call points, pendants, floor mats and wireless devices.
Taken together, the two purchases give Austco both hardware it designs itself and a monitoring layer that sits across equipment from many manufacturers.
