Gelsenkirchen/Krefeld — Water­land Private Equity conti­nues its buy&build stra­tegy at its port­fo­lio company Reha­con: fysio­con­cept is alre­ady the fourth acqui­si­tion for Reha­con within a few weeks. With a wide range of physio­the­rapy services, fysio­con­cept is one of the largest provi­ders in the Krefeld area. With this part­ner­ship, the Reha­con Group is streng­thening its regio­nal presence in the Lower Rhine region. At the same time, the Group intends to work with fysio­con­cept to further conso­li­date the prac­tice network, broa­den its service port­fo­lio and enter into addi­tio­nal colla­bo­ra­ti­ons with clinics.

The seller of fysio­con­cept is foun­der and CEO Jos Beulen. He will remain asso­cia­ted with the Group in a leading posi­tion and will conti­nue to accom­pany its further deve­lo­p­ment in the future. Water­land had acqui­red Reha­con in Janu­ary 2019 and assis­ted in the acqui­si­tion of Hamburg-based therapy center Anita Brüche in April. The tran­sac­tion, the details of which have been agreed not to be disc­lo­sed, is expec­ted to be comple­ted in early July.

fysio­con­cept main­ta­ins four loca­ti­ons in Krefeld, inclu­ding a physi­cal therapy prac­tice for the local Malte­ser Hospi­tal, its own private pati­ent loca­tion, and an Olym­pic base in the Krefeld area. The total of more than 80 employees treat over 12,000 pati­ents per year, both as outpa­ti­ents and inpa­ti­ents. Fysio­con­cept services include Exten­ded Outpa­ti­ent Physi­cal Therapy (EAP), jaw treat­ment, physio­the­rapy, lympha­tic drai­nage, medi­cal trai­ning, occu­pa­tio­nal therapy, osteo­pa­thy, and manual, neuro­lo­gi­cal and physi­cal therapy. With the latest acqui­si­tion, the treat­ment spec­trum of the entire Reha­con Group will be expan­ded to include offe­rings for compe­ti­tive athle­tes, for exam­ple. For fysio­con­cept employees, addi­tio­nal exten­sive trai­ning and further educa­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties open up. Inte­gra­tion into the Reha­con Group means even more flexi­bi­lity for thera­pists in their acti­vi­ties and choice of location.

Today, Reha­con is one of the leading provi­ders of physio­the­rapy services and therapy offe­rings in Europe. Nati­on­wide, the company opera­tes more than 120 therapy centers and employs over 800 people. The group gene­ra­tes annual sales of around 36 million euros at last count.

Jos Beulen, foun­der and mana­ging direc­tor of fysio­con­cept, welco­mes the part­ner­ship: “Also as part of the Reha­con Group, we stand for high-quality and indi­vi­dual physio­the­ra­peu­tic treat­ment. At the same time, pati­ents and employees bene­fit from Rehacon’s nati­on­wide presence and the asso­cia­ted new opportunities.”

Michael Reeder, foun­der and mana­ging direc­tor of Reha­con, empha­si­zes: “Reha­con is now even more present in the Lower Rhine region thanks to the part­ner­ship with fysio­con­cept. The inte­gra­tion into our group shows: We are consis­t­ently pursuing our course and want to grow further by inte­gra­ting addi­tio­nal complex and successful therapy centers in the highly frag­men­ted market for physiotherapy.”

Dr. Cars­ten Rahlfs (photo copy­right Water­land), Part­ner at Water­land: “Buy & build stra­te­gies are a key success factor for Water­land. We part­ner with well-posi­­tio­­ned entre­pre­neurs opera­ting in frag­men­ted markets with conso­li­da­tion poten­tial to help them expand rapidly. The clear objec­tive is to turn these compa­nies into successful market leaders by making acqui­si­ti­ons to expand their offe­rings. With fysio­con­cept, Reha­con can further expand its part­ner­ships with clinics in the region. Follo­wing the acqui­si­tion of the Anita Brüche Therapy Center in Hamburg a few weeks ago, the inte­gra­tion of fysio­con­cept into Reha­con is another key step towards achie­ving our stra­te­gic goal.”

As the majo­rity share­hol­der in Reha­con, the inde­pen­dent invest­ment company Water­land has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the health­care market. In addi­tion to MEDIAN, the leading private provi­der in Germany with more than 120 reha­bi­li­ta­tion clinics, the company port­fo­lio also includes the ATOS clinic group, which specia­li­zes in ortho­pe­dics, and the care service provi­der Schö­nes Leben. Finally, Water­land also has a signi­fi­cant stake in Hanse­fit, a leading network asso­cia­tion for company sports and health services with more than 1,400 affi­lia­ted fitness studios.

About Water­land
Water­land is an inde­pen­dent private equity invest­ment firm that helps compa­nies realize their growth plans. With substan­tial finan­cial support and indus­try exper­tise, Water­land enables its port­fo­lio compa­nies to achieve acce­le­ra­ted growth both orga­ni­cally and through acqui­si­ti­ons. Water­land has offices in the Nether­lands (Bussum), Belgium (Antwerp), Germany (Hamburg, Munich), Poland (Warsaw), the UK (Manches­ter), Denmark (Copen­ha­gen) and Switz­er­land (Zurich). Curr­ently, six billion euros in equity funds are under management.

Water­land has consis­t­ently outper­for­med its invest­ments since its foun­ding in 1999 and has regu­larly ranked among the top three leading private equity firms world­wide in past HEC/Dow Jones Private Equity Perfor­mance Rankings.