FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German healthcare group Fresenius (DE:FREG) will continue to look for acquisitions even if that leads to a temporary rise in debt, Boersen-Zeitung quoted the company's finance chief as saying.
Last year Fresenius bought U.S. generic drugmaker Akorn Inc (O:AKRX) for $4.8 billion, the biosimilars arm of Germany's Merck (NYSE:MRK) KGaA for as much as 670 million euros ($806 mln) and closed a 5.8 billion euro acquisition of Spanish hospital chain Quironsalud.
Rachel Empey, finance chief since last August, was asked in an interview with Boersen-Zeitung whether she unhesitatingly backed the proactive acquisition strategy. "By all means," she said.
"Fresenius generates a very high and above all stable free cash flow and is able to scale back the debt burden after acquisitions quickly," Empey, a British national who joined Fresenius in August from Telefonica (MC:TEF) Deutschland <02Dn.DE>, said in the interview published on Saturday.
