Overall assessment of the business situation

Fresenius Medical Care’s business development met our expectations in the first weeks of 2011. As discussed in the Outlook section that follows, demand for our dialysisDialysisForm of renal replacement therapy where a semipermeable membrane – in peritoneal dialysis the peritoneum of the patient, in hemodialysis the membrane of the dialyzer – is used to clean a patient’s blood. products and services worldwide continues to be high. Overall, the Management Board again assessed the Company’s business development as positive when this annual report was compiled. From today’s perspective, we expect to increase our revenue and earnings as forecast, and to achieve the other performance ratios as planned. As this report goes to press, the current development of our business is basically in line with our expectations.