Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA (NYSE:FMS) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Helen Giza: Thanks Hassan. Appreciate the questions. So we’re not going to lay out a bridge for 2025 today. We will have the CMD in April that will speak to the plans for both segments and the kind of the margin building blocks if you will some more to come in April with more detail there. When at that time we’ll also roll out the kind of the segment reporting. And we’ll have the historical kind of views on that as well. So you’ll be able to see, projects and services in the way you’ve all been asking to see it for many years. In terms of potential disposals, we’ve taken a hard look at the portfolio. And I guess, all I would say right now is, we’re looking at what really is too far removed from the core and also what maybe isn’t performing at the kind of margin level, we would expect.

So that does include non-core dialysis services assets as I mentioned. And we’re also looking at International Service markets, where either the reimbursement or profitability or scale is maybe no longer viable for us. More to come, right now, we don’t have these built in. As we bring them to fruition and execution over the course of the — probably the next 12 to 18 months with some in 2023, we’ll update on those in real time. And then, you asked a question on the — let me get all your questions here. You asked a question on the, margin for 2025. Of course, as I mentioned, BBC will be a little bit of a driver of that dilution, as that medical costs under management grows. We’ll still get the low single-digit percentage of margin, but that does dilute the overall margin.

But I think the key piece here will be what we cover in Capital Markets Day in April, on the bridges to the services and products margin improvements.

Hassan Al-Wakeel: Helen, if I could just follow-up please in the absence of a margin bridge and looking forward to getting that in a couple of months. But what are your assumptions in terms of pricing and wage inflation? Do you expect a meaningful maturation of the latter? And how are you thinking about reimbursement rates next year and beyond?

Helen Giza: Yeah. I’m not giving that today, Hassan. We’ll come back as I said, in April, with more detail on that.

Hassan Al-Wakeel: Thank you.

Operator: The next question is coming from Oliver Metzger from ODDO BHF. Please go ahead.

Oliver Metzger: Oh, Hi, Helen. Thanks a lot for taking my question. The first one is also on your 25% EBIT margin guidance. So you have increased your exposure to value-based care, quite strongly through with pre-merger Interval Health. So the question is, it’s a highly dilutive business, but still brings some EBIT. So how many revenues have you baked into your 2025 assumption. That would be quite interesting to know. And the second question is on €“ I understand that you don’t incorporate any potential governmental support in your guidance. That’s quite prudent. I would say, while magnitude and timing is highly uncertain, how do we evaluate from a top-down perspective which that some funds will be granted as otherwise smaller dialysis centers would not survive.

Helen Giza: Thanks, Oliver. Let me take your questions. In terms of the EBIT guidance, yes, you’re right. On BBC when we talk about dilutive. We had previously said that we expect the medical costs under management to be around $11 billion by 2025. And we had said that low-single digit around 1% margin there. Obviously, that is baked into these projections. And I don’t really €“ I mean obviously, it’s an accretive absolute EBIT contribution but it does leave the percentage. But obviously, we are seeing with all the other efficiency measures and productivity measures and pricing measures along with FME25, we do see a path to that margin range that we outlined. And of course, that’s why we have published that. In terms of government support, we really don’t see any path to that.