Ottobock and Hans Georg Näder – or the story of “The Emperor's New Clothes”
Ottobock, which claims to be the global market leader in prosthetics and one of the leading suppliers in orthotics, wheelchairs, and exoskeletons, wants to go public once again. It would not be the first attempt. Most recently, Prof. Hans Georg Näder wanted to sell at least the 20 percent that EQT had held in the company since 2027 on the stock market in 2022, after plans for an IPO had already been made in 2017. When the IPO failed, the company wanted to sell 30 percent via a private equity deal. Investors were said to be lining up. But that didn’t work out either.
Prof. Näder had to buy back the 20% stake from EQT, which wanted to exit the company after five years of poor performance. Because there was no money available, everything had to be financed externally via a PIK loan. This meant that not only the purchase price had to be borrowed, but also the interest on the loan. The total amount is said to be €1.1 billion, which the Näder family will have to repay shortly.
The fact that this cannot be financed from current business is shown by the financial statements published in the Bundesanzeiger (Federal Gazette) and repeatedly reported on by the German media. These stories regularly provide a different picture of the company than the one the PR department is trying to sell. This is probably one of the reasons why Ottobock’s lawyers regularly try to prevent these publications with lengthy lawsuits.
Ultimately, however, the company’s own balance sheets show that under Prof. Näder’s leadership, the company is unable to escape its poor financial performance.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the company is living off its assets, telling nice stories that have only limited correlation with the truth. This starts with the company’s history, as Manager Magazin has found out. Ottobock was not founded by Otto Bock, Hans Georg Näder’s grandfather, at all.
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