DGAP-News: RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG (english)

RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG: Annual General Meeting



RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG / AGM/EGM/Final Results



17.06.2008



Release of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a company of EquityStory AG.

The issuer / publisher is solely responsible for the content of this

announcement.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------



RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG, Bad Neustadt/Saale

- Annual General Meeting -



2007: Revenues EUR 2.02 billion / net consolidated profit EUR 111.2 million /

investments EUR 180.9 million / operating cash flow EUR 191.0 million /

earnings EUR 1.03 per ordinary share / shareholders' equity according to IFRS

EUR 810.8 million / 1.5 million patient treatments / 32,222 employees /

dividend increase by 12% to EUR 0.28



2008: First quarter - revenues of EUR 520.7 million / net consolidated profit

EUR 29.6 million / earnings per share EUR 0.27 / operating cash flow EUR 52.0

million / investments EUR 40.3 million / 410,194 patient treatments / 32,303

employees



Outlook: Forecast for 2008 confirmed - revenues of EUR 2.08 billion and net

consolidated profit of EUR 123 million / impact of economic and political

factors on company strategy / integrated growth strategy



Bad Neustadt a.d. Saale/Frankfurt am Main, 17 June 2008 ----- At today's

Annual General Meeting of the listed hospital group Rhön-Klinikum, the

figures of the past financial year played only a subordinate role: the most

important key figures for 2007 had already been presented and discussed at

this year's Results Press Conference on 24 April 2008, and the results of

the first quarter of 2008 were published on the same day. The 2007 Annual

Report as well as the quarterly report for the first quarter of 2008 are

posted on the Internet at www.rhoen-klinikum-ag.com.



2007: Revenues were lifted 4.8% to EUR 2.02 billion (previous year: EUR 1.933

billion); net consolidated profit rose by 1.9% to reach EUR 111.2 million

(previous year: EUR 109.1 million); earnings per ordinary share stood at EUR

1.03 (previous year: EUR 1.01); shareholders' equity according to IFRS was EUR

810.8 million (previous year: EUR 728.7 million); operating cash flow

recorded growth of 15.8% - not including the one-off cash effect (amendment

of Section 37 (5) Corporation Tax Act) - to reach EUR 191.0 million (previous

year: EUR 165.0 million). A total of 1,544,451 patients (+10.8%; previous

year: 1,394,035) were treated in the 46 hospitals belonging to

RHÖN-KLINIKUM Group at year-end.



Q1-2008: Revenues rose by EUR 18.7 million to EUR 520.7 million (Q1 previous

year: EUR 502.0 million); net consolidated profit recorded a smart rise of

17.5% to reach EUR 29.6 million (Q1 of previous year: EUR 25.2 million);

earnings per ordinary share stood at EUR 0.27 (Q1 of previous year: EUR 0.23

adjusted; + 17.4%); operating cash flow stood at EUR 52.0 million (Q1 of

previous year: EUR 45.9 million); in the first three months of 2008 the

Group's hospitals treated a total of 410,194 patients (+ 5.5%; Q1 of

previous year: 388,882); as at the reporting date, the Group employed a

total of 32,303 persons (31 December 2007: 32,222).



On the whole, the Board of Management was pleased with both the results for

2007 and with the first quarter of 2008. 'We have slightly exceeded our

profit forecast for 2007 and have made a strong start into financial year

2008', said Wolfgang Pföhler, chairman of the Board of Management of

RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG. 'We have succeeded in bucking the market trend, achieving

growth and expanding our market share in Europe's largest healthcare

market. The Board of Management and the Supervisory Board jointly propose

to the Annual General Meeting an increase in the dividend from 25 to 28

euro cents per share. The strong start into 2008 makes us optimistic. For

full-year 2008 we are shooting for revenues of 2.1 billion euros and net

consolidated profit of 123 million euros. Already today, we have generated

nearly half of this profit forecast. We thus expressly reaffirm our

forecast.'



Pföhler attributed the good business position to the Group's stable basis:

'The expansion in service volumes is largely accounted for by organic

growth. RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG has grown by its own strength', Pföhler added. The

reform impost, start-up financing for integrated care and the hike in VAT

were completely compensated by rationalisation efforts and targeted action

plans for raising service volumes as well as expanding the product

portfolio.



The company's sound basis is also seen in the fact that in particular the

Group's long-standing hospitals had made a positive contribution to the

Group's earnings. 'Also our largest subsidiary, Universitätsklinikum

Gießen/Marburg, generated a profit of 1.1 million euros in 2007', Pföhler

stated. 'For me this demonstrates that our innovative operating and

investment approach works at all levels of care.'



Besides efforts to strengthen the inpatient area, attention has also been

focused over the past year on expanding the offering in the outpatient

area. Thus, in 2007 a further six and in the first quarter of 2008 a

further three medical care centres (MVZs) were founded. The Group now has

18 MVZs with a total of 55 accredited doctor licences. 'The outpatient

market is in flux. Our growth opportunities are huge' Pföhler emphasised.



Economic and political factors



In response to the question 'What economic and political factors are having

an impact on our corporate strategy?', the chairman of the Board of

Management of RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG named three key factors: development of

wages, privatisation trend at various levels of government (local, state

and federal) and the regulatory environment for the hospital market from

2009 on.



Wage trends were increasingly a problem for public facilities where higher

wages and rising costs of material were leading to a financing bottleneck.

'We at RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG counter rising personnel and material costs with

targeted measures for an expansion in regional offerings and additional

rationalisation measures. This is how we succeed in growing against the

trend and in strengthening our position on the market.'



The good state of the German economy temporarily slowed the privatisation

wave in 2007. For 2008, Pföhler once again expects heightened interest on

the part of the State in allowing private operators to take an interest in

or completely take over public facilities.



'In this connection I am pleased about the takeover of St. Petri-Hospital

in Warburg/North Rhine-Westphalia. The consolidation of our 47th Group

hospital will take place with effect from 1 July 2008.'



Looking ahead to the impending reform within the German healthcare system,

Pföhler takes a calm and composed stance: 'No matter what politicians

ultimately decide, we will be able to manage within the framework

conditions.' However, Pföhler does not see the desired 'major shift' out of

an administrated system of healthcare to a healthcare market as being

likely right now; that said, he does welcome the clear trends towards more

competition between healthcare providers and remains optimistic: 'We are

confident that we will be able to turn the greater manoeuvring room into

high growth of the Group.'



Integrated growth strategy



Referring to the lead question 'Where does the focus of our integrated

growth strategy lie?', the chairman of the Board of Management provided

those present with an insight into what the Management of the Company has

been looking at.



'The State alone can no longer guarantee comprehensive and full-coverage

healthcare delivery for an ageing population', Pföhler stated. The

investment backlog had already reached as much as 50 billion euros. If

everything is left the way it is, a rationalisation of medical services and

'two-tier medicine' will be the only possible outcome. 'This makes it all

the more important to have economically viable healthcare offerings if the

entitlement of the population to healthcare is to be satisfied at all and

if a high level of healthcare certainty and high-quality medical services

are to be kept available close to where people live. This is exactly where

our core competence lies, and this is exactly where we are focusing our

efforts', the chairman of the Board of Management underscored. 'We are

against fine, privileged private medicine and instead are aiming at

affordable cutting-edge medical care for all people in Germany - regardless

of where they are insured.'



Pföhler then went on to outline the objective of RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG for a

comprehensive offering of full-service medical care covering the entire

range of outpatient and inpatient medical services and meeting the highest

level of quality and modern standards. 'To achieve this, we want to adopt

new approaches in the integration of the outpatient and inpatient sectors.

The essential case for our integrated healthcare model is that the medical

offerings will not cost more than what is being spent overall on outpatient

and inpatient services today.'



The original business of acute inpatient medical care remained the mainstay

of the Company and was to be expanded further. 'At the same time we will

extend the foundation of our integration growth model by expanding the area

of outpatient-inpatient basic and standard care', Pföhler explained.



He added that the establishment of a two-stage integrated care model would

be able to ensure a full-coverage and affordable healthcare network. 'The

core idea is that patients receive neither an over- or underprovision of

care, but instead will be provided with adequate inpatient and outpatient

care. The degree of severity of diseases in future will be closely linked

to the level of care at which the patient is treated' explained the

chairman of the Board of Management. At the interface between the

outpatient and inpatient area, there are rationalisation reserves and

growth potential. 'Above all, we are aiming at realising quality reserves

in medical care and reaping cost and revenue synergies in an intelligent

interaction between sectors. We want to optimise processes between the

different healthcare sectors through an exchange of expertise and know-how

with outpatient doctors, since they are the ones who can build bridges

between sectors.'



With the framework agreement concluded with the Association of Physicians

Accredited under Statutory Health Insurance (Kassenärztliche

Bundesvereinigung), cooperation is to be made possible in a wide array of

fields. 'We are striving for an open alliance of providers to explore and

implement new ways for maintaining a solidarity-based system of healthcare

delivery' Pföhler emphasised.



Note: This press release only contains the core ideas and considerations;

the entire presentation will be published shortly on the homepage of

RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG - www.rhoen-klinikum-ag.com.





Brigitte Sallwey

Sallwey & Partner

Grüneburgweg 41

D-Frankfurt/Main

Tel.: (+49)(0)69-97 203 628

Handy: (+49)(0) 171 6942 140





17.06.2008 Financial News transmitted by DGAP



---------------------------------------------------------------------------



Language: English

Issuer: RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG

Schlossplatz 1

97616 Bad Neustadt a.d.Saale

Deutschland

Phone: +49 (0)9771 - 65-0

Fax: +49 (0)9771 - 97 467

E-mail: fire.ir@rhoen-klinikum-ag.com

Internet: www.rhoen-klinikum-ag.com

ISIN: DE0007042301

WKN: 704230

Indices: MDAX

Listed: Regulierter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard), München;

Freiverkehr in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Stuttgart



End of News DGAP News-Service



---------------------------------------------------------------------------









Weitere Informationen: www.dpa-AFX.de