FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Elliott Investment Management has taken a stake in Fresenius SE, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday, sparking speculation the activist investor might push for a break up of the diversified healthcare company.
Fresenius and Elliott were not immediately available for comment.
Shares in the company, which is controlled by charitable trust Else Kroener Fresenius-Stiftung, were up 9% at 1202 GMT.
Before the news, shares in Fresenius had lost about 40% this year, in part because of ballooning costs at subsidiary Fresenius Medical Care.
Bloomberg earlier cited people familiar with the matter as saying Elliott would work towards a break-up of the group.
Fresenius SE’s long-serving Chief Executive Stephan Sturm left this month and was replaced by the former head of its drugs unit, after the company’s earnings were hit following the COVID pandemic and a surge in costs at FMC.
New CEO Michael Sen gathered experience in corporate restructuring in past roles as a management board member of Siemens and finance chief of E.ON.
Shares in separately listed FMC, the world’s largest kidney dialysis provider, were up 4.6%.
Fresenius, which also runs hospitals, makes generic drugs and helps plan hospital construction projects, has said net income would decline this year.
($1 = 0.9805 euros)
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger, Patricia Weiss and Hans Seidenstuecker, editing by Kirsti Knolle and Mark Potter)
