Strategy and goals

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Demographic change is posing fundamental challenges to societies. People worldwide are not only living longer, the pace of population aging is also increasing significantly. Thus, countries around the world are facing major challenges with respect to their social and health systems. As the worldwide population ages, diminished well-being as well as chronically ill and critically ill patients are becoming a major global public health challenge¹. A longer life, however, also offers opportunities for individuals and societies. The extent to which these opportunities can be leveraged depends heavily on one factor: health.

Our goal is to expand Fresenius' position as a leading global provider of products, services, and therapies for critically and chronically ill people. In line with our corporate purpose “Forward thinking health care to improve the quality of life of patients”, Fresenius develops innovative, affordable, and profitable solutions for the megatrends of health and demographics. Our mission is to offer better medicine and better health care services to ever more people. Every business decision we make is consistently guided by the well-being of our patients. It is at the center of everything we do. At the same time, we want to grow profitably and use our capital efficiently.

We have set ourselves clear medium-term goals. Based on the key financial figures for 2019, Fresenius expects average annual organic sales growth (CAGR) in the range of 4% to 7% for the period 2020 to 2023. Net income^2,3 is expected to grow organically at a CAGR in a range of 5% to 9% in the period 2020 to 2023. Fresenius expects that small and mid-sized acquisitions will additionally increase the CAGR for both sales and net income by approximately 1% point. However, economic success is not an end in itself for Fresenius; it rather enables us to keep investing in better medicine.

We are living up to our special responsibility as part of the health care system, even under the difficult circumstances of the current COVID-19 pandemic. With our products, services, and therapies, we have made an important contribution combating the pandemic worldwide. Our dialysis clinics and hospitals, for example, have taken extensive measures to ensure that patients receive the best possible care throughout their treatment. For essential drugs used for COVID-19 patients, we have committed ourselves to keeping prices stable – despite a significant increase in demand.

In our view, there is no need to adjust our strategy and goals due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On the contrary, our robust economic development in 2020 confirms our strategy. COVID-19 will even accelerate the implementation of some strategic goals, such as the further expansion of digital services. For example, a particular concern of patients during the pandemic was becoming infected in hos­pital. Through various digital solutions, we were able to address these and other concerns (see also Sustainability Report⁴).

¹ WHO 2018: “Ageing and health“
² Net income attributable to the shareholders of Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA
³ Before special itemsBefore special itemsIn order to measure the operating performance extending over several periods, key performance measures are adjusted by special items, where applicable. Adjusted measures are labelled with “before special items”. A reconciliation table is available within the respective quarterly or annual report and presents the composition of special items.
⁴ The separate Group Non-financial Report is not part of the audited Group Management Report. This also applies to all other references in the Group Management Report.

Our strategic focus

Fresenius invests in and manages a diversified portfolio of health care businesses that create value. With our four business segments we focus on a defined number of health care areas. We continuously develop our business areas and strive to assume leading positions in the respective health care markets and segments. Fresenius has defined strategic priorities to pursue its goal to strengthen the position of the Company as a leading global provider of products, services, and therapies for critically and chronically ill patients:

• ­Profit from megatrends: gearing businesses towards the megatrends health and demographics
• Create value: long-term value creation by allocating capital to profitable growth areas
• ­Act responsibly: responsible and sustainable corporate governance as part of our corporate culture
• ­Collaborate: fostering intra-Group cooperation to lever-age synergies