Fresenius aims to merge Helios with competitor to boost growth - report

BERLIN (Reuters) - Fresenius plans to merge its hospital operator Helios with a competitor and in doing so bring a minority owner of the subsidiary on board, Wolfgang Hofmann, responsible for mergers and acquisitions at the German healthcare group, told Handelsblatt.

"The aim is to further strengthen Helios' growth," Hofmann was quoted as saying by the daily.

In a first step, Fresenius would screen the market for suitable takeover targets. If everything worked well, their owners could then take shares in Helios.

"We want to remain the majority owners," Hofmann said.

(Reporting by Kirsti Knolle, editing by Rachel More)