Transaction completed: Völker AG is now Völker GmbH
Witten/Batesville 15.02.2012 – By making Völker a GmbH (limited company), Völker AG’s take-over by Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc., Batesville/Indiana, a public company, has been completed. This step, a very reasonable one in terms of company law, allows it to pursue exactly the strategy that both partners want. They both want to implement a two-brand strategy in Germany, Europe and internationally, while also generating synergic effects for the benefit of the entire group.
The company expects the now completed transaction to strengthen its distribution channels and Hill-Rom’s range of products. At the same time, the combined power of these two brands is to expand their leading position in the key markets when it comes to innovations, product portfolio and an excellent corporate performance.
Hill-Rom Announces Definitive Agreement to Acquire Völker.
Witten, December 16, 2011 -- Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: HRC), a global leader in patient support systems, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to purchase Germany-based Völker group. The closing of the transaction is subject to customary review by regulatory authorities. Völker is a leading manufacturer of long-term care and acute care bed frames, surfaces and furniture in Europe and around the world. Völker is a private company with annual revenues of approximately $100 million in 2010.
The transaction is expected to strengthen Hill-Rom's channels and product offerings in Europe. The complementary Völker products would also further develop Hill-Rom's global portfolio, accelerate international expansion, and leverage existing sales channels and customer relationships.
"During its nearly 100-year history, Völker has established an impressive reputation for quality and innovative design," said John J. Greisch, President and CEO of Hill-Rom. "Our companies share similar missions and approaches to enhancing outcomes for patients and caregivers. We look forward to expanding the presence of Völker's exceptional products around the world."
"This transaction is a strategic fit for both of our companies," said Heinrich Völker, President and CEO of Völker. "Hill-Rom is a global leader with the reach and capabilities to further enable our mutual vision of transforming healthcare with pioneering products that promote dignified care for patients and efficiency for caregivers."
The transaction is expected to close within the first calendar quarter of 2012.
People want to be better involved in therapies
More than three quarters of the population want doctors to spend more time on individual consultations and support and to be involved in therapies.
www.presseportal.de 
“Painfree city of Münster” coalition launched
80% of postsurgery patients suffer from pain because there is no networking and coordination between the various institutions and actors of the healthcare system. The threeyear research project has the objective of identifying these gaps and closing them.
www.schmerzfreiestadt.de
Expensive dementia and depression
The healthcare costs incurred by emotional and behavioral disorders in 2008 stood at almost EUR 28.7bn, 9.4bn thereof caused by dementia and 5.2bn by depression.
www.destatis.de
Visiting program caregiving and healthcare
The RobertBoschStiftung (foundation) extends its promotion program that has now run for eight years. From now on, members of the medical and healthcare professions can apply for a onetothreemonth visit abroad until June 2012 to benefit from an exchange with colleagues.
www.g-plus.org
A growing number of citizens has financial problems
15% of all Europeans have permanent difficulties with paying their household bills, 30% can hardly afford healthcare, childcare and LTC costs, 75% expect lower pensions.
www.2010againstpoverty.eu
Care: vision of the future.
85 specialists and experts from healthcare facilities and hospitals wrote down their vision of the future of care in 2020 in the Aachen Declaration (Aachener Erklärung). Their ideas and wishes like “attractive pay” and “public recognition” you can find at www.pia-pflege.de
Patients become customers: trends in the healthcare system.
The Deloitte study 2010 Global Survey of Health Care Consumers studied citizens’ satisfaction with and attitudes to the healthcare system in five countries, including Germany, where 62 percent are satisfied with their healthcare system. www.presseportal.de/go2/deloitte
Citizens trust healthcare information conveyed by social media.
67 percent of European consumers trust healthcare information conveyed by social media (e.g. blogs, forums and online communities). 70 percent of European doctors assume that the impact of such media will grow even further. www.digitashealth.com/#/news_awards
Medical tourism market expects strong growth.
In 2010, the expected sales stand at about Euro 75bn. 53 percent of the inhabitants of the EU are prepared to take such trips. The reasons are, for example, the good reputation of specialists and the quality of the treatment given. www.hospitalscout.com
Völker declares motors and drives its core competence.
In electrically operated beds, residents and patients’ hand control units give them greater independent from nurses. While at the same time, staff gain more time and have less physical stress. Generally, motors in healthcare and hospital beds drive the height adjustment and the positioning of the various elements of the lying surface. From the very beginning, Völker has used motors and drive systems that were used on other beds. As a consequence, the company, in conjunction with these systems’ suppliers, needed to gear these drives to the requirements placed by professional care in hospitals and nursing homes. Völker also had to keep the drives in line with the innovative progress characterising it’s beds. It is this progress, based upon the nursing homes and hospitals’ requirements and in particular their expectations of more safety, more reliability and additional applications that has driven this new development.
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German hospitals defy the economic crisis.
In 2010, hospitals’ insolvency risk has been cut by half on 2008 (from 16.4 to 8 percent). For 2011, however, the Krankenhaus Rating Report 2010 (data basis: 1,032 hospitals) expects another deterioration. Read the Executive Summary as volume 59 at www.rwi-essen.de/publikationen/rwimaterialien/.
