Siemens Healthcare to operate as separate division

German conglomerate Siemens has announced a corporate overhaul under which its healthcare division will be managed separately and its hearing aid business publicly listed. The company restructure will involve the creation of nine different divisions. Siemens Healthcare is currently the most profitable of the company’s branches.     

The measures are part of a new strategy unveiled by chief executive, Joe Kaeser, who took over the company last summer following a boardroom coup.

While the company will focus on the areas of energy technology and digital factory equipment in the future, its healthcare division will be managed separately which will give Kaeser the prerequisite to sell healthcare division or float it on the stock market later on.

Siemens issued in a statement that the restructuring “will give healthcare greater flexibility on the medical technologies market, which is characterised by fundamental changes and paradigm shifts.”

Kaeser said that the growing importance of molecular diagnostics and other bioscience areas indicate such a shift. If Siemens Healthcare aims to make acquisitions in that area, it would be easier to finance such activities via the stock market.