MESA Group Holdings GmbH and Asteral Limited announced an agreement today to merge their operations. The merger is backed by a company owned by the Permira funds.

This new combined group brings together MESA's pan-European expertise in vendor-independent servicing of high-end medical equipment and Asteral's expertise in vendor-independent equipment provision and asset management as well as their strong U.K. presence.

MESA's executive chairman and founder, Robert Piconi, will head the group and the chief executive of the Asteral board, Christopher Langley, has been selected to be the special adviser to the group's board.

"As a combined group, we will be in an even stronger position to help our customers deliver improved patient care by leveraging our expertise in the way that medical facilities are planned, procured, managed and maintained," Piconi said in a statement.

MESA is based in Switzerland and was founded in 2009 and it's now the largest independent pan-European provider of diagnostic imaging engineering services and asset management solutions. They have a presence in 12 countries including the U.K., Germany, Poland and Spain and sell to over 600 diagnostic imaging clinics and hospitals.

Asteral was founded in 2001 and it's the leading vendor-independent provider of medical equipment solutions for the acute health care sector in Italy, and the U.K., according to the company. Right now, they are working with 37 hospitals to help improve the efficiency of their medical equipment.

"MESA and Asteral have proven their market leadership over recent years, and together they will be able to help health organizations across Europe achieve even better outcomes," Mubasher Sheikh, principal and head of the health care sector at Permira, said in a statement.

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