Siemens Healthineers Managing and Supervisory Boards Stress Growing Relevance of Healthcare Industry for Germany as a Business Location

• Dividend proposal of €0.95 per share for fiscal year 2024 approved 
• Large majority in favor of the management’s resolution proposals on all further agenda items 

The relevance of the healthcare industry and its economic importance to Germany as a place to do business were emphasized by the chair of the Siemens Healthineers Supervisory Board and its chief executive officer in their speeches during the company’s virtual annual shareholders’ meeting. “This ‘industry’ employs about a million people in Germany and develops products and solutions for the whole world. This makes the healthcare industry in Germany a key employer and engine for growth,” said Supervisory Board Chair Ralf Thomas. 

The healthcare industry in Germany, to which Siemens Healthineers belongs, has been growing at more than 5 percent annually for years, significantly faster than the economy as a whole.¹ It is also one of the most important growth industries worldwide. 

“An industry that fits Germany very well” 

“The healthcare industry is one that fits Germany very well,” Chief Executive Bernd Montag said in his speech to shareholders. “It is an industry driven by knowledge and science, it is not particularly energy- intensive, it is highly relevant worldwide, it is largely immune to cyclical effects, and it is based on trust.” He added that the healthcare industry made an important contribution to the economy as a whole – not least for a resilient, stable and secure healthcare system. 

At the same time, the chief executive appealed to politicians in Germany: “I would like to encourage the future German government to bring the healthcare industry – as one of the country’s industries of the future – closer to the center of economic, education and innovation policy. We, for our part, stand ready to drive a much-needed mood-shift toward optimism and action. Germany remains a good business location by global standards,” Montag said. 

In recent years, Siemens Healthineers has invested around €650 million in its German sites – including Erlangen, Forchheim and Kemnath in Bavaria, and Rudolstadt in Thuringia. 

Far beyond Germany, currently around 73,000 Healthineers worldwide are united across countries, cultures, religions and geopolitical lines of conflict by the common goal of helping ensure that more people receive good healthcare every day – especially people in areas that have until now been medically underserved. The aim is to diagnose diseases earlier and more precisely and to treat patients as individually as possible so that they recover faster. The company focuses primarily on combating non-communicable diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, stroke and dementia, which are responsible for almost three-quarters of all deaths. In the past fiscal year, patients all over the world engaged with Siemens Healthineers products and solutions a total of 2.6 billion times. The company has set itself the goal of increasing the number of these “patient touchpoints” to 3.3 billion by 2030 – of which 1.25 billion are to be in low- and middle-income countries. 

Payout ratio of 54 percent of net income 

The annual shareholders’ meeting approved all agenda items by a large majority. Among other things, shareholders approved the proposal of the managing board and the supervisory board to pay a dividend of €0.95 per dividend-bearing share for the successful 2024 financial year. This corresponds to a payout ratio of 54 percent of net income. 

“Despite the difficult economic environment, Siemens Healthineers once again achieved its ambitious targets,” said Chair Ralf Thomas, looking back on fiscal year 2024, for which the annual shareholders’ meeting approved the actions of the managing board and supervisory board by a large majority. “I would particularly like to highlight the transformation of the Diagnostics business and the continuing very successful integration of Varian,” Thomas said. Since the combination with Siemens Healthineers in 2021, Varian has grown at a double-digit average rate per year. 

The annual shareholders’ meeting also approved the further development of the remuneration system for managing-board members. In addition to current market developments, special requirements for the competitiveness of a globally oriented company were taken into account. In addition, aspects of sustainability within the variable remuneration were further strengthened. 

The publicly broadcast part of the virtual annual shareholders’ meeting was followed by 756 people at its peak. 114 questions were asked live by shareholders or their representatives via video link and answered by the managing and supervisory boards.

The individual voting results on the agenda items of the annual shareholders’ meeting can be found here.