The Bundeskartellamt has cleared plans by Sana Kliniken AG, Ismaning, to acquire 51% of the shares in Klinikum Niederlausitz GmbH, Senftenberg, from the Oberspreewald-Lausitz district. Klinikum Niederlausitz operates two hospitals located in Senftenberg and Lauchhammer in the south of Brandenburg. In the same region, the acquiring clinic operator Sana runs the hospital Lausitzer Seenland Klinikum located in Hoyerswerda.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: “Both clinic operators have a strong market position in this region. Nevertheless, there are alternative hospitals run by other clinic operators for patients to choose from and these alternatives are already being used to a considerable extent. We therefore have no competition concerns about the merger.”

Sana is the third-largest private clinic operator in Germany. Klinikum Niederlausitz had run into financial difficulties in the past few years, which is why in a process lasting several months the district looked for a strategic partner to invest in the clinic offering enduring prospects for the future. The Oberspreewald-Lausitz district council voted in favour of the merger with Sana. The medical concept agreed with Sana involves high investments and seeks to maintain both hospitals based on further differentiating the spectrum of health care services they provide.

Klinikum Niederlausitz and Lausitzer Seenland Klinikum both reach high market shares and, to some extent, are in competition with one another. However, many patients already choose to be treated at the neighbouring hospital Elbe-Elster Klinikum and the region’s maximum health care providers, Carl-Thiem-Klinikum in Cottbus and the university clinic in Dresden. Both in geographical terms and with regard to the medical services offered, patients will still have at least equivalent alternatives to choose from after the merger. Following intensive pre-merger examinations, it was therefore possible to clear the planned merger within the one-month time limit of first-phase merger control.

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. Of the overall 337 transactions reviewed between 2003 and March 2021 only seven were prohibited. Eight merger projects were not notified after they had been critically assessed following an informal advance enquiry.