Results for financial year 2012

• Rise in patient treatments by over 12 per cent further demonstrates trust in high medical quality
• Gain of 9 per cent in revenues amid difficult regulatory environment
• Performance figures marked by extraordinary effects resulting in significant decline in earnings
• Dividend proposal provides for constant distribution rate of roughly 40 per cent with a dividend of € 0.25 per non-par share

Q1 2013 results

• Rise in patient numbers by 10 per cent to a total of 670,677 cases
• Revenues climb by roughly 10 per cent to € 752.2 million
• Decline in net consolidated profit by roughly 29 per cent to € 24.3 million

Pleasing growth despite difficult regulatory environment and extraordinary effects

“Last year RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG had neither a growth problem nor – given the undiminished acceptance enjoyed with patients – one of trust. We are focusing our undivided attention on improving the unsatisfactory trend in earnings”, said the chairman of the Board of Management of RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG, Dr. Dr. Martin Siebert, on Wednesday at the Company’s Annual General Meeting in Frankfurt.

In the first quarter of 2013 the positive growth trend continued – also helped by the first-time consolidation of Wiesbaden-based Dr. Horst Schmidt Kliniken. Between January and March a total of 670,677 patients were treated at the Group’s facilities, 10.0% more than in the same period last year. Revenues totalled € 752.2 million, a rise of 10.2% compared with the first quarter of 2012.

In 2012, RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG achieved a net consolidated profit of € 92 million. Operative EBITDA stood at € 291.5 million, 13.7% below the result of the previous year. That was not satisfactory and was a sufficient incentive to return the Company to the earnings levels where it already found itself a few years ago, Siebert said. In 2012, more than 2.5 million patients decided for treatment at a RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG facility, which – after over 2.2 million patients the year before that – is another record level. In practical terms, this translated into growth of 12.2% compared with the year before. “And precisely that – how the medical, nursing, diagnostic and therapeutic services are received by patients, expressed in arithmetically correct demand – may be interpreted as a decisive yardstick for the quality of our hospitals and the trust people put in our Company”, explained the chairman of the Board of Management. Revenues rose over the same period by 9% to reach € 2.86 billion.

Dividend proposal of 25 cents per share – stable distribution rate

In the context of the 2012 annual financial statements, the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board therefore proposed to the Annual General Meeting a dividend of 25 cents per share. The dividends thus total 34.6 million euros, whereas the distribution ratio, at nearly 40%, remains about at the level of the previous year. In the past, RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG traditionally subscribed to long-term value enhancement and at the same time a reasonable participation on the part of its shareholders. This in the past translated into a steady divided policy.

The biggest operative challenge was still Gießen and Marburg University Hospital (UKGM). The Company was making good headway with the optimisation of the structures and processes on site – here too, the Company was on schedule with its earnings improvement measures. “RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG wants to develop UKGM into a sustained model of success. That also includes the intensive efforts to realise PTC technology. “However, the complexity of the tasks and framework conditions in that area continues”, stated the chairman of the Board of Management.

The integration of Dr. Horst Schmidt Kliniken (HSK) was also still moving ahead as planned. For Siebert clear proof showing that RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG had not forgotten its core competences. The project was economically on schedule. Currently it was expected that positive monthly results would be reached for the first time probably in the third quarter of this year.

With regard to the Company’s further development, Siebert said that with the proven business model of acquiring, restructuring and integrating loss-making hospitals suffering from a lack of investment and threatened in their existence it would become even harder in future to achieve the Company’s traditionally high margins of our Company. Permanent cost cuts alone were not enough here. The Management was thus called on to daily make new improvements to the Company’s efficiency. To assist in this task, measures to significantly simplify and thus optimise the existing processes within the Company had already been initiated.

Thus, the “ImPULS” programme developed over the past weeks was a key driving force behind the necessary process of transformation at RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG. In this regard, ImPULS was based on three strategic supporting pillars: a Group-wide medical care strategy, a closer integration between patients and referrers, as well as a structured cross-facility exchange of knowledge, expertise and technologies over all our areas of activity.

Change programme “ImPULS” as driver for growth and further development

In order to meet the growth-oriented challenges, medical expertise within the Group’s Management would also be further expanded. “With ImPULS, RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG is creating the basis for disproportionate organic growth. Through medical excellence, optimised organisation and the efficient use of resources, we want to gain further market shares and improve our competitive position. We want to lift our organic growth above the market average; ImPULS is therefore primarily a growth programme”, Siebert said.

By further developing the Company into an integrated healthcare company, the stated self-perception of RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG was that of a provider of “network medical care” ensuring swift, individualised, diagnosis-focused and comfort-oriented care for patients. “As a result of this development we intend to offer our patients supplementary insurance coverage”, the chairman of the Board of Management explained. The target group was explicitly not self-payers or privately insured patients, but persons covered by the statutory health insurance plan to whom the Company can offer virtually a private insurance coverage status under this model. Siebert: “Our concept will help overcome the gap of what is referred to as two-class healthcare, the separation between those covered by statutory health insurance and those under private insurance.”

He and the entire Board of Management were convinced that they would make RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG even more competitive with the structural, process-related and personnel measures taken over the past months.

Contract with member of the Board of Management Martin Menger renewed

On the occasion of the Annual General Meeting, the Company announced that following the recent renewal of the contract with the CFO Jens-Peter Neumann the member of the Board of Management Martin Menger will now also continue serving the Company for a further three years.