Analysis of audited statements reveals consistent losses, soaring debt and significant shareholder withdrawals, casting a shadow over the German prosthetics group’s 2025 listing plans.
“Figures don’t lie” is a well-known saying. Especially not audited ones. And in fact, the financial statements of today’s Näder Holding GmbH & Co. KG (formerly Otto Bock Holding GmbH & Co KG) paint a clear picture. As it is well known, Ottobock is planning to go public in 2025. Investors are expected to invest their money in the company. The only question is, in which equity story? The balance sheets of Näder Holding, which is more than 95 percent equivalent to the business that is to be floated on the stock exchange, have little to do with the jubilant stories from Ottobock’s PR department, which are sent out every year, long before the public gets to see the audited financial statements.
It is a mischievous person who suspects evil behind the management’s tactic of regularly publishing the financial statements more than a year after the annual financial statements and its own PR announcements and often only after reminders from official bodies.
Accounting experts have not allowed themselves to be influenced by this strategy and have analyzed the official audited annual financial statements from 2018 to 2023 published by the Bundesanzeiger Verlag.
The fact is that, for example, in the past six fiscal years, the holding company has only made a profit once, measured in terms of net income adjusted for extraordinary income. In all other five years, losses in the millions were incurred. During the same period, the equity ratio fell from a good 30.8% to around 11.4%. Between 2018 and 2023, debt rose at an increasing tempo from €571 million to €1,147 million. Although the company was not making any money, the shareholders served themselves. Between 2018 and 2023, around €170 million was withdrawn.
