(Yicai) July 26 -- Shares of United Imaging Healthcare rose after the Chinese advanced medical imaging equipment maker said it plans to invest in a domestic developer of core components for high-end medical devices.

United Imaging [SHA: 688271] ended 3.7 percent higher at CNY116.25 (USD16.03) a share in Shanghai today, after earlier surging by as much as 4.9 percent.

United Imaging will invest CNY120 million (USD16.5 million) in Sichuan Longevous Beamtech's latest financing round, the Shanghai-based company announced late yesterday. Two other new investors, Alliance Investment and an investment fund, will jointly invest an additional CNY80 million (USD11 million), it added.

Longevous Beamtech developed China’s first medical cyclotron, breaking foreign products' long monopolization of the domestic market, United Imaging noted. The investment can promote cooperation between the two companies in medical imaging products worldwide, it pointed out.

Cyclotron is the core component of positron emission tomography, a large medical imaging diagnostic and treatment equipment usually used to detect and diagnose major diseases in an early stage, including malignant tumors, coronary heart disease, and neuropsychiatric disease, United Imaging said.

Since Alliance Investment is United Imaging’s second-largest shareholder with a 16.4 percent stake, the latest investment is considered as a related transaction, United Imaging noted.

After the investment is completed, United Imaging will own 10 percent of Longevous Beamtech, becoming its fourth largest shareholder, while Alliance Investment will hold a 5 percent stake, according to United Imaging, adding that the pair will appoint a director and a supervisor to the subject company respectively.

United Imaging ranks second in the computed tomography equipment Chinese market and third in the magnetic resonance imaging devices one, it said in its 2023 financial report. It is also one of the country's leading makers of molecular imaging equipment and one of the few Chinese manufacturers to get PET/CT product registration and achieve mass production.

Editor: Martin Kadiev