Siemens announced today that it intends to deconsolidate its remaining stake in Siemens Healthineers through a direct spin-off.
Reports circled as recently as last month that Siemens was considering this move, although the company has been having discussions around the future of the Healthineers business since at least late last year.
The European tech giant currently has an approximately 67% stake in the medical technology unit. It plans to transfer 30% of Siemens Healthineers shares to Siemens AG shareholders by way of a direct spin-off as a preferable option. As a result, Siemens shareholders benefit directly and receive shares in Siemens Healthineers.
Siemens Healthineers currently stands as the world’s fourth-largest medtech company, bringing in more than $24 billion in annual revenue.
CEO Bernd Montag said in a LinkedIn post that the move marks the “natural next step” in the company’s journey to becoming a fully independent company, which it started with its IPO in 2018.
“As a publicly listed leader in medical technology, we as Siemens Healthineers have steeply grown our relevance for customers and patients, made transformative moves like our combination with Varian, and created a unique culture and outstanding employee engagement around our purpose: We pioneer breakthroughs in healthcare. For everyone. Everywhere. Sustainably,” Montag wrote.
“We are excited to enter our new strategy phase – elevating – with an even clearer profile for our customers and their patients, and for our employees and investors.”
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Siemens claims that deconsolidation potentially unlocks long-term value for shareholders as a more focused technology company. Separating the Siemens Healthineers unit delivers a highly synergistic portfolio, the company said in a news release.
The move makes Siemens’ stake in Siemens Healthineers a significant minority, allowing “greater capital allocation flexibility.” It still enables the company to participate in what it labeled “the attractive business of Siemens Healthineers” as a minority shareholder.
CFO Ralf P. Thomas says each company has “a strong financial profile” with strategic flexibility in their respective markets. The company hopes to enable both organizations to operate “with greater agility and focus,” he added.
Siemens believes this enables the Healthineers unit to benefit from a higher free float and greater attractiveness for the capital market as a leading pure-play medtech company. The company intends to provide future updates on the structure and timing of the transaction, which remains subject to final regulatory clearances and approvals. It expects to offer an update in the second quarter of 2026.
“Today marks the beginning of the next stage of growth for Siemens. By giving up the controlling majority in Siemens Healthineers, we are focusing on a highly synergistic Siemens portfolio” said Roland Busch, president and CEO of Siemens AG. “This is a logical next step in executing our strategy of combining the real and the digital worlds, focusing on accelerated profitable growth of our digital businesses, connected and software-defined hardware and industrial AI.”
Another medtech spin-off
Spin-offs have become fairly common in the medtech industry in the past several years, with this year alone delivering several from some of the biggest companies in the world.
In April, Stryker completed the sale of its U.S. spinal implants business to Viscogliosi Brothers. The following month, Medtronic announced plans to spin off its Diabetes business.
BD struck a $17.5 billion deal to combine its Biosciences & Diagnostic Solutions business with Waters in July, just a few years after it spun off its own diabetes unit, now called Embecta. In September, Solventum completed the $4.1 billion sale of its Purification & Filtration (P&F) business to Thermo Fisher Scientific. Solventum itself spun out from 3M last year.
Johnson & Johnson just last month announced that it intends to separate its DePuy Synthes Orthopaedics business as well.
Other relatively recent examples include Zimmer Biomet selling its Spine & Dental business and Baxter selling its Kidney business.
