RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG Focuses on Best Possible Care of Patients in Current Corona Crisis Following Increase in Revenues in 2019
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DGAP-News: RHÖN-KLINIKUM Aktiengesellschaft
/ Key word(s): Annual Results/Miscellaneous
Corporate News Bad Neustadt / Saale | 24th March 2020 RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG Focuses on Best Possible Care of Patients in Current Corona Crisis Following Increase in Revenues in 2019
After increasing its revenues in financial year 2019 RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG, one of the leading healthcare providers in Germany, is now focusing on the best possible medical and economic management of the current corona crisis. Apart from that the programme to improve medical processes in particularly our core business, the operative start of telemedical provider Medgate Deutschland, the successful continuation of our campus strategy and the further digital transformation of our Company remain focal points in 2020. Stephan Holzinger, CEO of RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG, stated: "2020 will be a difficult year in view of regulatory policy placing heavy burdens on our financial results and a number of operative challenges at individual sites. The challenges have certainly intensified with the current corona crisis also coming in the middle of a takeover bid. While we are able to make preparations for good medical care, the economic consequences on our Company of the corona crisis currently remain uncertain. It looks as if we, together with the entire hospital industry, shall have to learn to live with this uncertainty for a while yet." Continuation of Improvement Programme Initiated in 2017 RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG is structurally well prepared with its five hospital sites providing maximum and intermediate medical care. In 2019 our Company and the entire hospital industry were particularly challenged by the increasing regulatory policy, the bureaucracy of the hospital sector and the lack of specialist staff. In 2019 we took a variety of organisational, technical and staffing measures to further optimise processes in the clinics, group headquarters and also between the clinics, in order to reduce costs and to increase earnings, thus confronting the operative challenges. The organisation of our medical processes will be further improved in 2020 and focus is also being placed on improving the administrative structure of the corporate group and individual sites. We have commissioned an analysis and feasibility study to this end. Our Company intends to alleviate the heavy financial burdens from hospital regulation, among other things, with this multi-faceted approach. Significant Increase in Revenues in 2019 - As Expected Net Consolidated Profit Lower Than Last Year In financial year 2019 revenues rose by 5.8 % to Euro 1.3 billion. EBITDA was almost at the previous year's level with Euro 125.3 million. Revenues and EBITDA developed within the forecast range. The EBITDA margin amounted to 9.6 %. Net consolidated profit of Euro 44.5 million following Euro 51.2 million last year resulted from EBITDA while taking higher depreciation and amortisation as well as financing costs into account. The operative result was influenced by several factors: the first positive results were realised in last year's balance sheet from the agreement on the so-called separate accounting at the university hospital in Giessen and Marburg. EBITDA was positively influenced by a single amount of Euro 20.0 million in 2018. Positive effects resulted from higher earnings in the university out-patient clinics in Giessen and Marburg and subsequent effects from the earlier Fresenius/Helios transaction. Further influencing factors were regulatory interventions, a highly competitive environment and difficult conditions to win specialist employees. 860,528 patients, up by 1.2 %, were treated at our five hospital sites at the Campus in Bad Neustadt, the university hospital in Giessen and Marburg as well as our hospitals in Bad Berka and Frankfurt (Oder). Corona Pandemic - Unforeseeable Effects on Hospital Industry and Business Development How the onset of the coronavirus will affect our core business cannot yet be assessed at the current point in time. RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG is well prepared for a possible corona pandemic at its five sites with hospitals providing maximum and intermediate medical care. We are taking the corona epidemic very seriously and are continuously monitoring the current requirements. Crisis management groups were set up at our sites early on. At regular intervals a central crisis management group deliberates on the current situation with respect to a corona pandemic. We are therefore in a position to admit corona patients to our intensive care units where such patients must be isolated and receive artificial ventilation. There are separate areas ready to isolate patients with a confirmed coronavirus infection. We are a member of the German Centre for Lung Research (Deutsches Zentrum für Lungenforschung - DZL) and have in Giessen/Marburg the only German university hospital to maintain a BSL4 laboratory for highly pathogenic virus diseases. RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG fully supports the forceful and radical measures taken by the German central and federal state governments to slow down the rate of SARS-CoV-2-Virus infection in the population. Improving the Provision of Healthcare in Germany - Entrance in the Growth Market of Telemedicine In the forward-looking sector of telemedicine RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG is cooperating with Swiss telemedical pioneer Medgate to establish a range of telemedical services. Medgate Deutschland GmbH was founded in December 2019. It has the capability to develop into an important business sector for our Company. The potential of telemedicine can also be seen in the corona pandemic. Medgate Deutschland's aim is to make an important contribution to improving healthcare in Germany by providing telemedicine and Digital Health services which are directed towards an increasingly digital-savvy society and their demands for efficient and fast healthcare of a high quality irrespective of time and place. Medgate Deutschland will offer telemedical advice and treatment irrespective of time or place on 365 days a year. The start of operative business is envisaged for the second half of 2020. Takeover Offer Asklepios Kliniken GmbH & Co. KGaA informed the Company on 28th February 2020 that it intends to offer the shareholders of RHÖN-KLINIKUM Aktiengesellschaft a voluntary public takeover bid for all outstanding shares in the Company in return for payment of a sum in the amount of Euro 18.00 per share. The Board of Management of RHÖN-KLINIKUM Aktiengesellschaft was not involved. As soon as the Company receives the bidding documentation from Asklepios Kliniken GmbH & Co. KGaA, the Board of Management and Supervisory Board will thoroughly review such documentation and then issue their detailed comments pursuant to § 27, German Securities Acquisition and Takeover Act (Wertpapiererwerbs- und Übernahmegesetz - WpÜG). Dividend The Board of Management and Supervisory Board shall propose to the Annual General Meeting the distribution of a dividend of Euro 0.25 per non-par share entitled to dividend for financial year 2019 following Euro 0.29 last year. Our dividend policy is aligned to a dividend payout ratio of approx. 40 percent. With this ratio RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG safeguards its medium-term ability to make investments yet also allows its shareholders to participate in the future success of the Company. Guidance RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG expects revenues in the amount of Euro 1.4 billion +/- 5 % for the current financial year 2020. We also expect earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in the range of Euro 72.5 million to Euro 82.5 million. This forecast reflects the regulatory legislative intervention, such as the German regulation for the threshold for nursing staff (Pflegepersonaluntergrenzen- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RHÖN‐KLINIKUM AG is one of the largest healthcare providers in Germany. The hospital group offers excellent medical care with a direct link to universities and research institutes. Over 860,000 patients are treated every year at the five group hospitals located in Bad Berka, Bad Neustadt, Frankfurt (Oder), Giessen and Marburg where more than 18,000 employees work. RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG is currently exploiting the opportunities available to develop new areas of growth. Entering the forward-looking telemedicine market with Medgate Deutschland, the innovative RHÖN campus concept for offering avantgarde healthcare across sectoral boundaries in rural areas as well as consistently extending our gradual corporate digitalisation are key pillars of the corporate strategy.
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Contact: RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG | Head of Corporate Communications and Marketing
RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG | Head of Investor Relations and Treasury RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG | Schlossplatz 1 | 97616 Bad Neustadt / Saale, Germany
24.03.2020 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG. |
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