The Lake Constance District (Bodenseekreis) has reorganised inpatient hospital care within the district. With effect from 1 August 2026, the Swiss AMEOS Group has taken over the management of Friedrichshafen Hospital. This is based on a service provision and support agreement, which the District Council approved on 13 May 2026.
The starting point was the decision by the City of Friedrichshafen in the summer of 2025 to relinquish its ownership of the Medizin Campus Bodensee (MCB). Subsequently, two separate insolvency proceedings were initiated against Krankenhaus Friedrichshafen GmbH and Krankenhaus Tettnang GmbH. As ensuring inpatient care is a statutory duty of the district, a viable solution had to be developed within a few months — in parallel with both ongoing proceedings and with their respective stakeholders and decision-making processes.
The search for a partner proceeded along two separate tracks: the self-administration of the insolvent companies conducted an investor process to realise the value of the hospital operations. At the same time, and under its own responsibility, the Lake Constance District conducted a safeguard and support process, in which it negotiated the conditions under which it would secure and support care provision by a future operator. Both processes had to be coordinated in terms of content and timing, without affecting the independence of the other.
Several hospital operators took part in the process. From this pool of applicants, two prospective operators were guided through the negotiations to the stage of being ready for notarisation, so that the district council was ultimately presented with two fully negotiated and notarised assurance and support agreements to choose from. The contracts comprised a total of around 1,271 pages.
This arrangement and procedure are likely to be unprecedented in this form. Seufert supported the Lake Constance District throughout the entire process under the leadership of transaction partner Dr Johannes Gruber: from structuring the security and support procedure, through the parallel negotiation of both sets of contracts and the support provided during committee deliberations, right through to implementation.
In addition, Seufert advised the district on the acquisition of the hospital building in Tettnang from the insolvency estate. The purchase agreement was notarised on 14 July 2026; the district council unanimously approved it on 28 July 2026. This also laid the foundation for the building's future use and for the finalisation of the proceedings.
