The new Fresenius boss Michael Sen says goodbye to the aggressive takeover course of his predecessor and sets higher savings targets for the health care group.
“We no longer buy sales and growth,” said Sen in Bad Homburg. He wants to lead Fresenius with a focus on strategy and no longer on transactions. “Transactions are for strategy only”. In any case, there is currently little space for big deals, he said with a view to the financial strength of the heavily indebted Dax group.
Under Sen’s predecessor, Stephan Sturm, Fresenius had made a series of takeovers and boosted the group’s growth – for example with the multi-billion dollar acquisition of the Spanish clinic chain Quironsalud in 2017. However, the takeover of the US pharmaceutical company Akorn later failed. In addition, Fresenius is increasingly tightening its debts. The group had to correct its profit targets several times. Storm passed in the fall.
Save more, especially at FMC
Fresenius had already announced an increase in savings targets on Tuesday evening. Ongoing efficiency programs would be intensified. From 2025, around one billion euros should be saved annually. The cutbacks are being made especially at FMC: The dialysis subsidiary should reduce the annual costs by 650 million euros by 2025.
The shareholders are also feeling the new course. For the first time in almost 30 years, they will not receive a dividend increase for 2022, but a distribution at the previous year’s level of 92 cents per share.
Fresenius wants to make purchasing more efficient and reduce administrative costs, said CFO Sara Hennicken. In addition, the digitization of the Helios clinic chain will be promoted and IT at group level trimmed for efficiency. The austerity program is based on the earlier conversion programs. FMC had already announced that 5,000 jobs would be cut worldwide in 2021.
