Results for financial year 2008

• 1.6 million patients treated (+ 6.7%)
• Revenues: € 2.1 billion (+ 5.2%) 
• Net consolidated profit: € 122.6 million (+ 10.3 %) 
• Dividend proposal: € 0.35 per ordinary share

Q1 2009 results

• More than 450,000 patients treated (+ 10.3 %) 
• Revenues: € 559.1 million (+ 7.4 %) 
• Net consolidated profit: € 30.7 million (+ 3.7 %)

Outlook

• Forecast for 2009 reaffirmed
• Capital increase promptly in the second half of the year

At its Annual General Meeting today in Frankfurt am Main – for the first time held in the Jahrhunderthalle Höchst – Wolfgang Pföhler, chairman of the Board of Management of RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG, was pleased with the development in 2008: “Also in its 21st financial year, the RHÖN-KLINIKUM Group succeeded in reaching its targets and strengthening its position as a reliable healthcare provider”.
 
For the first quarter, he reported further significant growth. And: “We are optimistic for the further course of the year”, said Wolfgang Pföhler. The Board of Management confirmed its forecast for 2009: The Group expects to generate revenues of roughly € 2.3 billion and a net consolidated profit of € 130 million within a possible fluctuation range of plus or minus € 5 million. Pföhler thus confirmed the forecast given at the results press conference in March. 

Regarding the planned capital increase, Pföhler moreover outlined the Group’s future development: “Starting from the 37 sites in Germany, we want to build up a healthcare network making it possible for patients to reach one of the facilities of our hospital network within maximum 1.5 to two hours. Our claim is to offer generalised high-quality healthcare provision that is accessible and affordable for everyone.”

The Supervisory Board and the Board of Management on 24 May 2009 decided to strengthen the Company’s equity capital basis. The capital increase is currently being prepared and is to be carried out promptly – if and to the extent the capital markets permit – in the second half of the year. Utilising its authorised capital, RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG wishes to raise an amount of up to € 500 million.

“The crucial premise for our decision is the wave of hospital privatisations in the offing for the period from 2010”, Pföhler explained. The global economic and financial crisis will result in rapidly declining tax revenues at all levels of government (federal, state and local). Already before the crisis, the investment backlog for German hospitals had grown to as much as € 50 billion.

If the state wanted to avoid rationing medical care, one alternative would be to work more with experienced, reliable and competent healthcare providers. “We are certain that we will succeed in convincing people of our offering and in presenting an innovative concept of secure healthcare as an answer to rationing.” Pföhler said.

Following the last recession in 2002/2003, public hospital operators added almost 20 facilities to the hospital network between 2004 and 2006. Building on this experience, a similar development could be expected from 2010 given the much more pronounced recession currently witnessed.

“Our capital increase thus at the same time is a strong signal and offer to the federal states, cities and municipalities”, Pföhler emphasised, “We are planning this capital increase out of a position of strength of a market and innovation leader that has set its sights on growth. It is an offer to shareholders and investors to invest in the core of our business model and to participate in the expansion of our healthcare network at the different care levels.”

“We shall continue to employ our restructuring and rationalisation expertise, coupled with our innovative strength, to modernise hospitals and to achieve an increasing integration of outpatient and inpatient care”, Wolfgang Pföhler concluded.  

The proposal of the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board to distribute a dividend for financial year 2008 of € 0.35 (previous year: € 0.28) per share with dividend entitlement (DE 0007042301; 103,680,000 non-par shares) was accepted by the shareholders.