• Decision on sale of university hospitals in Gießen and Marburg in favour of RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG
• Federal State of Hesse retains 5 per cent
• Staff redundancies excluded until end of 2010
• Approval procedure of Hesse Budget Committee on sale of properties slated for mid-January 2006

In an extraordinary session the Hesse State Government has decided in favour of the listed hospital group RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG headquartered in Bad Neustadt/Saale for the proposed sale of the university hospitals in Gießen and Marburg. The decision was made on the basis of the notarised offer of RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG; the purchase price amount to € 112 million. The state will retain an interest of five per cent to safeguard research and training. 

For over 11 years under a public-private partnership, RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG has maintained and operated the university cardiology hospital Herzzentrum Leipzig – Universitätsklinik. Based in Saxony, the hospital enjoys an outstanding reputation in research, training and healthcare delivery. The experience gained from this success story naturally came to bear in the offer made to the Hesse State Government. Overall, the negotiations were along the lines of the same framework and contract terms as are usual for other hospital takeovers. 

Currently, RHÖN-KLINIKUM Group counts 41 hospitals with 12,222 beds/places at 33 sites. In the first nine months of 2005 a total of 729,522 patients were treated in the Group’s facilities. The Group is considered to enjoy stable and sound financial structures. At 30 September 2005, the Group employed 21,200 persons. On 31 December 2005 the Supervisory Board will be increased to 20 members in line with the principle of parity representation (10 employee representatives, 10 shareholder representatives). For the nearly 9,500 employees of the university hospitals in Gießen and Marburg, the Parties have contractually agreed that redundancies are excluded until the end of 2010.

In the middle of January the Hesse State Budget Committee is to give its go-ahead for the sale of the properties.

“We are glad we won the bidding procedure”, declared Wolfgang Pföhler, chairman of the Board of Management of RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG, to representatives from the press in Wiesbaden. “From the beginning we realised that the privatisation and takeover of the first German university hospital would be of path-breaking importance, and that one of the biggest tasks facing us would be the integration of the two university hospital sites in Gießen and Marburg into the RHÖN-KLINIKUM Group, but this is a task we will gladly take on with unrelenting and undaunted resolve. We also see no reason to change our earnings forecast for 2006.”, Pföhler concluded.