Siemens has announced its intention to spin off its health care business, Siemens Healthineers, as a publicly listed company to "give it even greater flexibility in implementing its growth plans."

"Health care technology is a highly attractive business in which we want to further expand our leading position," Joe Kaeser, president and CEO of Siemens AG said in a statement, adding that "with this step, we continue to implement Vision 2020 launched in May 2014."

He stressed that the public listing will give the Healthineers "even more focus and flexibility in pursuing its growth strategy."

"Health care is one of the most attractive businesses, if not the most attractive we have in the company," Kaeser told Bloomberg TV. "We want to focus it more."

The move had been in the works since 2014, when Siemens created the health care component as a "company within the company." This gave it the ability to be agile enough to adjust to the the massive transformations sweeping the health care market.

"The public listing is now the next step in further strengthening Siemens Healthineers in Siemens for the future," he stated, stressing that the move came during a period when the Healthineers already held "a leading position" and the company had boosted its market share.

"Our forecast doesn't leave much room for error," Kaeser told a news conference at the company's Munich headquarters, according to Reuters, adding however, that the shock victory of Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election could have a silver lining for Siemens, given Trump's campaign promises to rebuild infrastructure.



"The public listing is a key lever for reaching our strategic goal of being THE enabler for health care providers worldwide," said Healthineers CEO Bernd Montag, adding that "greater entrepreneurial freedom and agility will allow us to help shape the development of the global health care market and the growth strategies of successful health care providers. We'll enable our customers to participate successfully in the trends toward consolidation, industrialization and holistic health management with a high degree of clinical relevance, efficient workflows and financial value added."

Siemens Healthineers was in the news earlier this month, expanding its footprint as part of this expansion strategy, as HCB News reported when the health care powerhouse acquired Conworx Technology, the Berlin-based developer of point-of-care device interfaces and data management solutions.

"As hospitals consolidate and acquire physician offices, there is a huge need by emerging health care networks for seamless integration of hundreds of decentralized devices that are spread across dozens of sites," Peter Koerte, president, Point of Care Diagnostics, Siemens Healthineers, said of the motivation behind the deal.

"It is clear to us that to satisfy our customers' needs, we must deliver solutions that ensure superb connectivity, no matter which analyzer is being connected," he added. "We are determined to continue Conworx's practice of working closely with every vendor to ensure that all connected analyzers are working to the best of their ability."

The buy builds Siemens' informatics presence and underscores its strategic direction "to enable health care providers around the world to meet their current and evolving challenges and to excel in their respective environments," noted the company.