The healthcare group wants to turn FMC KGaA into a real AG – and relinquish control.
(Photo: dpa)
Frankfurt The expected unbundling is coming: The healthcare group Fresenius wants to decide to deconsolidate its ailing dialysis subsidiary Fresenius Medical Care (FMC) this year. The company announced this on Tuesday evening.
FMC is to be converted from a partnership limited by shares (KGaA) into a normal stock corporation. The change of legal form is to be approved by an extraordinary general meeting at the beginning of the third quarter, which FMC will convene in July.
The Bad Homburg group currently controls the dialysis subsidiary via the structure of a partnership limited by shares (KGaA), but only holds around 32 percent of the shares. The deconsolidation would make Fresenius less complex and would no longer have to fully include the subsidiary in its own balance sheet.
>> Read also: Fresenius is considering separation from dialysis subsidiary FMC.
The relevant supervisory bodies and the Else Kröner Fresenius Foundation, which also controls the healthcare group via a KGaA structure, have approved the project in the past few days.
In connection with the proposed change of legal form at FMC, the management structure is to be simplified and a two-tier system with a co-determined supervisory board and a management board is to be introduced. This structure corresponds to German standard. “Fresenius will continue to be an active and supportive shareholder of Fresenius Medical Care without having to reduce its stake in Fresenius Medical Care as part of the company’s planned deconsolidation,” FMC said in a statement.
Following approval, the entire process of formally converting Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA into a German stock corporation is expected to be completed by the end of this year. Both Fresenius and FMC are currently listed as stocks in the leading German index, the Dax.
More: How Fresenius Medical Care is preparing for a possible sale