Strategy and goals

Committed to life

At Fresenius, we live up to our promise of being committed to life. We save and improve human lives with affordable, accessible, and innovative healthcare products and the highest quality in clinical care. In doing so, we consider significant paradigm shifts in the healthcare environment with regards to biologic products and therapies, technological change, and new forms of data generation, processing, and usage.

Patients are always in the focus of our activities. Our vision is to be the trusted, market-leading healthcare company that unites cutting-edge technology and human care to shape next-level therapies.

Our portfolio targets three platforms: (Bio)Pharma – including clinical nutrition, MedTech, and Care Provision. With these platforms, we cater to major trends in healthcare and are becoming a more therapy-focused company. The health and quality of life of our patients is at the core. At the same time, our platforms address attractive value pools in healthcare, which will provide opportunities for future profitable growth. Hence, we orient our portfolio towards businesses that enable a strong focus on margins and capital returns, and the highest ambitions for operational excellence and competitiveness.

Fresenius operates in key healthcare areas. We continuously develop our business segments and strive to assume leading positions in system-critical healthcare markets and segments.

At the same time, we hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards of quality and integrity. All of our business segments make an overall contribution to increasing the quality, affordability, and efficiency of healthcare as well as patient satisfaction. At the same time, we care for our environment by protecting nature and using its resources carefully.

Fresenius Kabi’s commitment is to improving the quality of life of its patients. The quality and safety of its products and services is thus of paramount importance to Fresenius Kabi.

Fresenius Helios hospitals are characterized by high standards of treatment quality, hygiene, patient safety, and quality of care.

At Fresenius, we combine our medical expertise with extensive production capacities, and clinical practice with technology know-how to continuously improve therapies for our patients. We will continue building on our strength in technology, our competence and quality in patient care, and our ability to manufacture cost-effectively. Developing products and systems that provide a high level of safety and user-friendliness and enable tailoring to individual patient needs is an inherent part of our strategy of sustainable and profitable growth. We plan to develop more effective products and treatment methods in order to offer best-in-class medical standards. Digitalization is playing an increasingly important role – whether it is in healthcare facilities or in production. It drives innovative technologies and treatment concepts and can contribute to solving numerous challenges in the healthcare system.

The commitment of our more than 176,000 employees worldwide is key for the success and sustained growth of Fresenius. We firmly believe in a culture of diversity, as we are convinced that different perspectives, opinions, experiences, and values enable Fresenius to continue successfully growing as a global healthcare company.

To tackle the upcoming challenges and be able to continue to grow as a company, attracting new employees is key. Not only do we try to attract new talent, but also do everything we can to retain and develop our employees over the long term. We offer a variety of flexible working-time models and incentive programs to ensure that our long-term needs for highly qualified employees are met. Furthermore, we offer our employees attractive opportunities to develop their careers in an international and dynamic environment.

Executing segment strategies

The Fresenius Group offers a broad spectrum of system-critical products and services for the health and quality of life of our patients. Our business segments hold leading positions in key areas of healthcare, and all of them are continuing to execute their respective strategic priorities to sustain leadership and contribute significantly to the benefit of healthcare systems. At the level of the Fresenius Group, we manage the strategic direction of the Group, and orient our portfolio towards value-maximizing business areas and maximum patient impact.

With its Vision 2026, Fresenius Kabi has developed a strategic plan to transform the company for the next decade and to better capture new growth opportunities. Fresenius Kabi will continue to focus on high-quality products for critically and chronically ill patients. Within this clear direction, Fresenius Kabi has defined three growth vectors, alongside the strengthening of the resilience of our volume businesses (3+1 strategy). The growth vectors are:

• the broadening of our biopharmaceutical offering,
• further rollout of clinical nutrition,
• expansion in the MedTech area.

We consistently pursued our segment strategy in FY/2024. Fresenius Kabi and mAbxience form a complete, vertically integrated biopharmaceutical business, that holds a strong portfolio and pipeline, provides extensive and cost-efficient manufacturing, and is strengthening the targeted commercial footprint in Fresenius Kabi’s and mAbxience’s target regions. In addition, Fresenius Kabi and mAbxience continue to strengthen the biopharma business and strategic network through new agreements and partnerships.

Successful market launches have made Fresenius Kabi the leading provider of intravenous lipid nutrition in North America. This strengthens the global clinical nutrition business beyond its solid base in Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific.

Our MedTech business has been further strengthened by Ivenix. With the award-winning Ivenix infusion system, we are entering the infusion therapy market in the United States. The design of the Ivenix infusion system is easier to use than conventional systems and increases the safety of infusions. The pump also works seamlessly with other systems.

In parallel, Fresenius Kabi has continued to build resilience in its volume-driven IV business and is extending the portfolio with continued launches in all regions.

Fresenius Helios wants to further strengthen its position as the leading private healthcare service provider in Europe.

Helios Germany will continue to focus its offerings on cross-sector healthcare, further specialize hospitals, and coordinate their respective medical service portfolios within regional structures. In regional competence centers, we are already pooling expertise in various specialist areas in order to achieve the best treatment results for our patients. We will continue to drive this clustering forward in the future in order to further enhance medical quality. We intend to exploit the growth potential in the outpatient sector by linking our medical care centers (MVZs) even more closely with hospitals. In addition, we will seize the newly created regulatory opportunity of daytime inpatient treatment as a further form of care. We also aim to increase the efficiency of our energy consumption in the interests of sustainability and climate protection.

In Spain, we expect demand for hospital and other healthcare services to continue to rise. We aim to integrate our diverse range of inpatient and outpatient services even better and further expand them across the entire network of sites. We will selectively consider building new clinics and expanding existing hospital sites.

Fresenius Helios consistently puts focus on the strategic factors of medical excellence, innovation, and service quality in order to attract patients. Our focus here is on optimal treatment quality as well as patient satisfaction.

Fresenius Helios is constantly advancing its digitalization agenda in order to further improve patient care and service, building on our already extensive digital offering in particular through the Quirónsalud patient portal and app. Alongside the digitalization of our documents and internal processes, we will focus even more strongly on the digitalization of direct clinical processes and clinical decision support in the future. In doing so, we also want to make responsible use of the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence.

Fresenius Helios’ strategy update was transparently presented at a Capital Markets Day in June 2024.

#FUTUREFRESENIUS

In the 2024 fiscal year, we further advanced our #FutureFresenius program in order to transform our Group and position it for the coming decades. We continued to make great progress in the 2024 fiscal year, in both the structural and financial progression of the Group, and kept the transformation momentum.

The healthcare industry has a long runway for growth, which will be accelerated by quickly evolving technologies, new therapies such as biopharmaceuticals, more and more professional steering of patient journeys, and a true digital revolution. We want Fresenius to be at the forefront of these trends and have thus charted our course for continued system relevance in our businesses.

The first step of this journey was a Reset: strengthening our return focus, driving structural productivity, and creating change momentum across the organization. The next step in the journey was the Revitalize phase, with continuous portfolio optimization and the pursuit of growth verticals. In fiscal year 2025, we will start the rejuvenate phase, in which we aim to grow profitably along our strategic platforms. In addition to the disciplined continued development of our portfolio, we will also succeed in driving forward future-oriented innovations.

After the deconsolidation of Fresenius Medical Care and targeted divestments in fiscal year 2023, we further sharpened the focus of the portfolio in 2024 with a structured exit from Fresenius Vamed, achieving structural simplification. Financial progression was further driven based on the clear structures and responsibilities defined with the new operating model as well as rigorous productivity measures. The Fresenius Financial Framework enabled us to steer and enhance performance more effectively in 2024 and will continue to guide us in the future.

Portfolio focus

We have executed a comprehensive diagnosis of our Group portfolio at sub-segment level, in order to highlight growth opportunities aligned with market trends, further refine our management approach for each business we operate, and identify areas to strengthen our portfolio focus.

Going forward, we want to increasingly orient our portfolio to three platforms: (Bio)Pharma – including clinical nutrition, MedTech, and Care Provision. With these platforms, we cater to major trends in healthcare and are becoming a more therapy-focused company. The health and quality of life of our patients who we serve with high-quality, affordable products and services is at the core. At the same time, our platforms address attractive value pools in healthcare, which will provide opportunities for future profitable growth.

We will pursue growth investments in the health care products and services of tomorrow through our operating companies Fresenius Kabi and Fresenius Helios, thus focusing on our core business areas. This will ensure that we have a solid capital structure and sufficient funds to seize future growth opportunities. Within the Fresenius Group, we will – under the operating model initiated in 2023 – provide strategic direction, effective governance and risk management, and provide targeted services to the benefit of our segments and the overall capital efficiency of the Group.

Structural productivity

While fundamentally healthy and geared toward long-term growth, our market environment is also characterized by typical macro headwinds that challenge our operations and increase our cost base. With that in mind, we have continued our focus on structural productivity and are running corresponding programs in all our business segments and at the corporate center.

Structural productivity improvements are expected to offset market headwinds and to create financial flexibility for future growth investments in the coming years.

The Group-wide cost and efficiency measures have progressed faster than planned. The target for annual sustainable cost savings of ~€400 million at EBIT level has already been achieved with accumulative savings totaling €408 million at the end of Q3 / 2024. Originally, the target was expected to be achieved by year-end 2025. A total of €474 million in savings was realized by the end of 2024. One-time costs of around €144 million were incurred in fiscal year 2024 to achieve these savings. These costs will continue to be classified as special items in line with previous practice.

Fresenius will continue its efforts to increase structural productivity. So far, Fresenius Kabi has delivered the majority of the savings. Going forward, Fresenius Helios is expected to increase its operational excellence as part of a dedicated performance program focused on improving clinical processes, improving non-patient-facing areas as well as synergies and procurement. In total, the program is expected to contribute around €100 million to EBIT in fiscal year 2025.

Exit from Fresenius Vamed

In May 2024, the Fresenius Group initiated the structured exit from its investment company Fresenius Vamed. Based on an overall plan, the exit takes place in the following major steps:

• the sale of a 70% majority stake in Vamed’s rehabilitation business to PAI Partners. The transaction was largely closed on September 30, 2024.
• the sale of Vamed’s activities in Austria to an Austrian consortium of construction companies Porr and Strabag. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first half of 2025.
• The Health Tech Engineering (HTE) business unit, which is responsible for the international project business and accounts for approximately 15% of Vamed’s revenue, will gradually be scaled back in an orderly manner. The process should largely be completed by 2026. Current project contracts will be fulfilled. Until then, the business will be reported as a special item separate from Fresenius’ core business. On February 3, 2025, the Fresenius Group announced that it entered an agreement with Worldwide Hospital Group (WWH), a healthcare company based in Germany, to fully divest Vamed’s international project business (Health Tech Engineering, HTE). Closing is expected mid-2025 and subject to the fulfillment of certain closing conditions. The transaction involves the transfer of liquidity and is expected to result in a negative special item amounting up to a low three-digit million euro amount.

The Vamed High-End Services (HES) business unit, which provides services for Fresenius Helios and other hospitals, was transferred to Fresenius.

Since May 2024, in accordance with IFRS 5, the Vamed activities in Austria have been reported as a separate item (discontinued operations) in the consolidated statement of income and the consolidated statement of cash flows as well as in the consolidated statement of financial position (assets held for sale). The rehabilitation business is also reported as a separate item in the consolidated statement of income, the consolidated statement of financial position and the consolidated statement of cash flows in accordance with IFRS 5 for the period from May 2024 until its disposal in October 2024. Since October 1, 2024, the investment has been accounted for using the equity method in accordance with IAS 28.

The relevant IFRS require valuation at fair value, which is derived from the purchase prices, if the fair value is below the carrying amount of the net assets. In the consolidated financial statements of the Fresenius Group, mainly non-cash special items of €605 million were recognized due to the Vamed exit, of which €464 million were attributable to the shareholders of Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA and €141 million to the noncontrolling interests of the Fresenius Group. This includes a deconsolidation gain of €3 million as part of the sale of the rehabilitation business as at September 30, 2024, which mainly resulted from the reclassification of currency translation differences from other comprehensive income to consolidated net income and other consolidation effects. The special items are reported as part of net income from discontinued operations.

Due to the application of IFRS 5, the prior year figures have been adjusted in the consolidated statement of income and the consolidated statement of cash flows.

Spread over several years, the exit from the project business is expected to result in special items in the high three-digit million euro range which will mainly be cash effective. The special items will be recognized in the consolidated statement of financial position if and to the extent that the respective recognition criteria are met.

As a result of the exit from the project business, Fresenius Vamed remeasured the business activities to be wound down and recognized special items of €473 million in fiscal year 2024.

In fiscal year 2023, Fresenius comprehensively analyzed Fresenius Vamed and initiated an extensive transformation of the company’s organization. As part of this transformation, Fresenius Vamed remeasured the affected business activities in fiscal year 2023 and recognized special items of €554 million.

The special items recognized in fiscal years 2024 and 2023 are attributable in particular to impairments of contract assets, receivables and inventories as well as of loans and investments and to restructuring expenses as well as the recognition of corresponding provisions. These special items are largely non-cash items.

As of January 1, 2025, Fresenius operates the hospital services business, previously owned by Vamed, as a Fresenius subsidiary under the name Fresenius Health Services (FHS). Enrico Jensch, previously Chief Operating Officer of Helios Germany, is CEO of FHS. At the Fresenius Management Board level, Robert Möller (CEO Fresenius Helios) is responsible for FHS.

Fresenius Health Services supports healthcare facilities in operating an efficient and needs-based technical infrastructure. The company offers comprehensive services and advice on medical technology, operating technology, and sterile supply.

Change momentum

At Fresenius, our collective actions have always been driven by our enormous passion and the strongest possible commitment to patients. On our pathway to #FutureFresenius, we want to nurture this passion, and combine it with a strong appetite for change, preparing us for the dynamic shifts in the healthcare industry for the best of our patients. As part of #FutureFresenius, we aim to embrace new ways of working and establish a culture of excellence, where we measure ourselves against the best and maintain trusting dialog that welcomes diverse perspectives. Throughout our company, we engage in such trusting dialog with our employees, stakeholders, and external partners, and our global top leaders are agreed about the need for change. We aim to continuously pick up the pace of change and improvement and use this momentum to create #FutureFresenius.

Sustainability program

For Fresenius, sustainability is an integral part of its business model. The Company is working to establish global sustainability standards and continuously improve its own sustainability performance. To this end, Fresenius continued to drive forward its ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) initiatives in fiscal year 2024.

Fresenius has set climate targets for the Group complementing its existing sustainability targets and programs. The Company aims to be climate-neutral in Scope 1 and Scope 2 by 2040 and to reduce 50% of absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 2030 compared to 2020 levels. On June 27, 2024, Fresenius announced an additional decarbonization target: The Company aims to become net zero along the entire value chain by 2050, this includes Scope 1 and Scope 2 as well as also material Scope 3 emissions. The latter were initially reported for fiscal year 2023.

Further information on our sustainability organization and measures can be found in the Sustainability Report.