Francesco de Meo, head of Fresenius subsidiary Helios-Kliniken, has announced in an interview with German newspaper „Die Welt“ that the company wants to achieve an annual turnover increase of EUR 150m by acquiring more companies. Despite the failed take-over bid for Rhön-Kliniken during the course of the year de Meo hopes that „maybe some day there will be another chance.“ In this context he declared himself in favor of one private hospital group in Germany accessible for all patients.
For Helios – in order to initiate local clusters – possible take-over targets would be worth the while in Southern Germany. The Fresenius subsidiary is not very present in this region up to now. Ideally, the acquisition of a maximum care hospital would serve the purpose of implementing this same hospital as a core around which Helios could group smaller hospitals from the area.
Concretely, what synergies would be the result in the course of the outlined expansion efforts? For Helios, it is essential to strenghten the competitive edges with regards to an expansion in the field of standardized processes. Here, processes are not only internal corporate processes but aspects of the quality of local supply are affected as well. The Fresenius group with its subsidiaries Helios and Fresenius Kabi would be predestined to map out systematic growth on the basis of holistic care extending into the field of homecare supplies. Occasionally, this is already good practice in many hospitals. But often rearranging common structures and applied practices takes a substantial period of time. The sensitive issue of transition management is a business based on personal bonds. Many hospitals and suppliers have difficulties in translating these practices into concepts and contracts. Occasionally, changes with regards to transition management are accompanied by fears of being accused of corruption. For this reason, a German university hospital announced three years ago that it had cancelled all contracts with homecare companies while conveying all relationships affected by this means to an equilateral partnership.
Per definition, Fresenius would be a prime example when it comes to establishing an integrated concept with one’s own teams (Kabi-Teams) because these teams would be managed by an enterprise which also runs hospitals. This would fit the „all services from a single source“ approach. However, in reality the implementation of such a concept is complicated by the fact that Helios cannot project the availability of local or ecclesiastical institutions in the near future.