The Bundeskartellamt has cleared the acquisition of Malteser Krankenhaus in Bonn by Helios Kliniken GmbH in the first phase of merger control. Helios Kliniken GmbH is the largest operator of private hospitals in Germany. The company belongs to the international health care group Fresenius. Helios runs 86 hospitals and employs 66,000 employees in Germany. Malteser Krankenhaus is an acute care hospital providing specialised medical services in 17 medical fields with over 400 regular beds in Bonn.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: “After a brief examination the planned merger could be cleared since Helios does not yet operate any hospitals in the Bonn area. The merger will not limit the number of alternative options available to patients.”

The next Helios hospital closest to Malteser Krankenhaus in Bonn is in Siegburg, 22 km away. All other Helios hospitals are more than 50 km away.

The most important hospital operators in Bonn are still Gemeinnützige Gesellschaft der Franziskanerinnen zu Olpe, which runs St. Marien Hospital Bonn and St. Josef-Hospital Bonn, followed by the University Hospital Bonn and other non-profit operators.

Background – Merger control in the hospital sector:

Irrespective of their operators, hospitals are independently active as entrepreneurs and compete with one another. Due to strict legal provisions there is almost no price competition in this sector. It is therefore the main objective of merger control to maintain competition in the quality of healthcare for patients. It is crucial to ensure that patients have sufficient local options to choose from.

In spite of the growing concentration in the hospital sector only very few mergers had to be prohibited by the Bundeskartellamt in recent years. Only last week, the planned acquisition of Kreisklinik Hofgeismar and Kreisklinik Wolfhagen by the Kassel district was cleared by the Bundeskartellamt after a short examination period. Of the overall 323 transactions reviewed between 2003 and May 2020 only seven were prohibited. Eight merger projects were not notified after they had been critically assessed following an informal advance enquiry.