Arden Hills-based Intricon’s hearing business acquired by China-based customer

Intricon Corp. has sold its hearing business to inHearing Technology Inc., an arm of a Chinese med-tech company.

The new owner, a subsidiary of Huizhou Jinghao Medical Technology Co. Ltd., wants to develop advanced hearing aid technology based on Intricon’s intellectual property. Terms of the deal announced Tuesday were not disclosed.

Arden Hills-based Intricon spent years developing technology, software and firmware for over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a rule in 2022 clearing the way for the retail sale of OTC hearing aids, which can be purchased without a prescription.

But the OTC business has proven to be sluggish.

“Our hearing health business pretty much flatlined,” Intricon CEO Scott Longval said. “That [OTC] channel was much slower to develop than we originally anticipated.”

Longval said that the hearing business only accounted for 15% of Intricon’s revenue. The deal allows Intricon to focus on its medical device business, which includes micromedical components, catheters and wearable devices.

“We just believed that our medical business was better positioned to drive growth,” Longval said.

Intricon and Huizhou Jinghao were already connected.

“The buyer was a customer of ours. We did components for their hearing aids,” Longval said.

Intricon has three manufacturing facilities in the Twin Cities, where it employs 490 people. It also has operations in Singapore, Indonesia and Germany. It is also opening a production plant in Costa Rica.

No facilities were involved in the Huizhou Jinghao deal.

Intricon’s revenue was $125.2 million, with a net loss of $64,000 in 2021, its last full year as a publicly traded company.

“We have been growing steadily since,” Longval said, and Intricon is now profitable.

New York-based Altaris Capital Partners acquired Intricon for $241 million in 2022.

With the Intricon deal, Jinghoa says it will further its vertical integration in the hearing aid business.

“Intricon has made significant contributions to the hearing industry, and with the acquisition complete, Jinghao will place an even stronger focus on advancing hearing technologies,” Jinghao CEO Shine Wang said in a statement.