In brief
In healthcare it is about people. The care provided should be of excellent quality and completely safe. It is hard to create and retain a valuable competitive position in the healthcare market. The government is cutting budgets and the market is increasingly free and open. This increases competition and makes consumers more aware of the different qualities of healthcare that are offered. The healthcare market is also influenced by trends in telecommunications, which leads to a situation wherein care does not always have to be offered in physical entities like a hospital. Patients can be monitored while they are at home and results from this monitoring are automatically and continuously send to the doctor in the clinic. In addition, there is an increasingly larger share of elderly people in society which drives private clinics and hospitals to fully use their capacity.
Our perspective
Healthcare companies face changes in customer behavior, market dynamics and regulatory demands. All in all, investing in companies that offer services that are well positioned to an ageing population or those companies that modernize how we perceive healthcare services and offer smart services, devices and solutions, are interesting and diversifying investment opportunities.