From a section of Sandra Lindenberger’s German business newsletter “Die 500 reichsten Deutschen”, published in Manager Magazin, October 1st, 2024
Prosthetics manufacturer Ottobock has shown signs of instability in recent months. The company withdrew its planned initial public offering in 2022, coinciding with the departure of three C-suite executives. Swedish private equity investor EQT, which held a 20 percent stake in the company at the time, completed its divestment this spring. The exit has proven particularly disappointing for EQT investors, revealing what my colleague Dietmar Palan describes as “a chasm between promised excellence and subsequently published mediocrity” in his analysis of decisions made by Ottobock’s majority shareholder Hans Georg Näder (63). Palan’s detailed financial analysis demonstrates that EQT’s investors would have achieved comparable returns through government bonds.