Asklepios Group: Sound business performance in first nine months of 2022

Asklepios Kliniken GmbH & Co. KGaA has posted a stable business performance in the first nine months of 2022. Over the coming months, the general economic situation, the shortage of qualified staff and the uncertain energy supply will pose challenges for the healthcare sector, which is still suffering from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

In the period from January to September 2022, the Asklepios Group’s healthcare facilities treated over 2.65 million patients (9M 2021: 2.39 million). This increase was attributable mainly to outpatient care. The Asklepios Group employed 49,759 full-time equivalents on average in the first nine months of the year (9M 2021: 49,910).

In the first nine months of 2022, the Asklepios Group generated consolidated revenue of EUR 3,935.4 million (9M 2021: EUR 3,818.8 million). Consolidated net income (EAT) amounted to EUR 104.9 million (9M 2021: EUR 99.2 million). The EAT margin was up slightly on the previous year’s level at 2.7% (9M 2021: 2.6%). Thanks to the foresight with which we have acted, both the cost of materials ratio (9M 2022: 24.2%; 9M 2021: 24.0%) and the staff costs ratio (9M 2022: 65.6%; 9M 2021: 65.5%) are still around the previous year’s level.

Kai Hankeln, CEO of the Asklepios Group, comments: “We are living in a time of crises. Thanks to our strategic positioning – for example, in the areas of digitalisation and central procurement – we at Asklepios can still cope with these well. This is also reflected in our patient numbers, with around 250,000 more people entrusting their health to us compared to the previous year. We too are increasingly finding ourselves confronted with the current challenges, but are consistently focusing on our core business and our systematic orientation.”

Asklepios continued to pursue its investment strategy in the third quarter of 2022 and invested a total of EUR 178.5 million in the first nine months of the year (9M 2021: EUR 217.6 million). These investments go towards the Asklepios Group’s healthcare facilities and strategically important projects, including the central warehouse in Bad Oldesloe that was inaugurated in October 2022.

Asklepios focuses on a long-term financing strategy combined with active maturity management. In the third quarter of 2022, selected schuldschein maturities were thus refinanced early in the context of issuing a schuldschein loan.

CFO Hafid Rifi comments: “We do business prudently and respond in good time to any regulatory and economic obstacles that arise. One such example is our long-term contracts in central procurement for energy, which lead to positive economies of scale. In addition, we secured refinancing on the financial market at an early stage for the next two years by placing a schuldschein loan in July 2022.”

Asklepios expects the situation in hospital operations to remain tense this winter and into 2023. In addition to the coronavirus pandemic, inflation will also pose a challenge for the hospital market. The price increases for energy and medical products, etc. can be expected to continue to impact the healthcare sector. Asklepios expects that the above challenges will affect the remainder of this financial year and the first few months of 2023 and thus also the business development of Asklepios Kliniken.