• 191,730 patients treated
• Revenues stand at € 276.1 million
• EBITDA amounts to € 49.7 million
• Outlook for 2015: Revenues between € 1.08 billion and € 1.12 billion, EBITDA between € 145 million and € 155 million

In the first quarter of the current financial year almost 200,000 (191,730 to be precise) patients were treated in the hospitals of RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG. Revenues amounted to € 276.1 million for the period from January to March with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) standing at € 49.7 million. These financial figures are not directly comparable with those of previous years due to the sale of a total of 43 facilities which was completed in the last financial year.

Annual General Meeting on 10th June 2015

The Board of Management and Supervisory Board shall propose to this year’s ordinary Annual General Meeting the distribution of the net consolidated profit in the form of a dividend in the amount of € 0.80 per non-par share to the shareholders. The Company also wishes the shareholders to be able to participate extensively in subsequent years in the future success of the Company by means of dividend payout ratios which are clearly above 60 % of the group profit. A precondition is that growth increasing the value of the Company will not be realised by acquisitions, for example.

We are currently planning to carry out another share repurchase scheme after the Annual General Meeting through a public purchase offer with a volume of approx. 10 % of the current share capital. The corresponding authorisation was already granted by the Annual General Meeting in 2014. A final decision by the Board of Management and Supervisory Board on the actual procedure, exact time and financial aspects of the repurchase is still outstanding. In the course of distributing the sales proceeds the shareholders already had the opportunity in Autumn 2014 through a share repurchase programme with subsequent capital reduction to offer their shares to the Company. With an ultimate offer rate of approx. 98.4 % and together with last year’s dividend roughly € 1.7 billion has already been distributed to the shareholders with this instrument.

Outlook

We expect revenues of € 1.08 billion to € 1.12 billion and EBITDA of between € 145 million and € 155 million for 2015, the first full financial year with the new portfolio structure. As in 2013 and 2014 one-off effects will continue to influence the corporate results during this financial year as well. The size of these positive and negative special influences is a low two digit million figure; they will be priced in gradually over the entire financial year 2015 and will partially cancel each other out.

“We have successfully stayed our course for organic growth in the first three months of the current financial year. Our focus is on medical innovations and new therapies as well as modern equipment and procedures for the benefit of our patients. We are therefore increasing our research and development budget accordingly in order to strengthen our unique standing in the market. Innovation projects with a total volume of roughly € 4 million will be financed at all our locations within the corporate group in the next few months,” CEO Dr. Dr. Martin Siebert stated. Since 1st January 2015 all Group locations either have university hospital status or act as academic teaching hospitals with a close link to science, research and training. Furthermore Siebert referred to the fact that the planned hospital reform envisages payment of medical services based on quality indications. “We have also done our homework with respect to quality. Our hospitals will certainly benefit if this criterion does indeed become relevant for the calculation of fees.”