November 22, 2007
HELIOS continues expansion in the German hospital market and acquires the Krefeld Municipal Hospitals
HELIOS Kliniken GmbH, a subsidiary of Fresenius SE, has agreed to acquire a majority stake in the Krefeld Municipal Hospitals. Yesterday, the Krefeld City Council voted to sell a 74.9 per cent interest in the hospitals to HELIOS. The Krefeld Municipal Hospitals include the Krefeld Clinic and the Cäcilien Hospital Krefeld-Hüls.
The Krefeld Clinic will be the fifth maximum-care hospital in the HELIOS clinic network following Berlin-Buch, Schwerin, Wuppertal and Erfurt. The Krefeld Clinic has a capacity of 1,023 beds and provided treatment for around 35,400 patients in 2006. The Cäcilien Hospital has 182 beds and treated about 4,600 patients. Both hospitals together have about 3,300 employees and achieved sales of approximately € 175 million in 2006.
The parties agreed not to disclose the purchase price. HELIOS will continue to develop the Krefeld Clinic as both a maximum-care and an academic teaching hospital and plans to strengthen the Cäcilien Hospital by expanding its medical services. HELIOS will construct a new hospital on the site of the Krefeld Clinic and plans to modernize the Cäcilien Hospital.
The acquisition is subject to the approval of the district and antitrust authorities. HELIOS expects to complete the transaction in the first half of 2008.
"The acquisition is one of the largest recent hospital privatizations and an important step in HELIOS' growth strategy," said Dr. Ulf M. Schneider, Chairman of the Management Board of Fresenius SE. "The hospitals provide an excellent geographic and medical fit to the HELIOS network. Krefeld's decision for HELIOS confirms our privatization concept which is focused on the highest levels of medical quality and transparency," he added.
HELIOS Kliniken Group operates 58 clinics of its own with around 16,000 beds, including four maximum-care hospitals in Erfurt, Berlin-Buch, Wuppertal and Schwerin. The company's 27,000 employees carry out 460,000 in-patient treatments per year. In 2006, the group achieved sales of € 1.7 billion.
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Fresenius is a health care group with international operations, providing products and services for dialysis, hospital and outpatient medical care. In 2006 group sales were approx. € 10.8 billion. On September 30, 2007 the Fresenius Group had 110,379 employees worldwide.