BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - German science and technology company Merck KGaA (MKGAY.PK), at its Annual General Meeting on Friday, presented the company's plans for future growth to Merck shareholders.
Stefan Oschmann, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Merck KGaA, said, 'We performed well in 2018, which was a challenging year. In 2019, we want to resume growth for all key figures: sales, EBITDA pre and EPS pre. Our objectives are ambitious yet feasible since we've created a solid foundation.'
Merck said it is proposing to the AGM a dividend of 1.25 euros per share as in the previous year.
As announced earlier, the company expects moderate organic sales growth in 2019. For EBITDA pre, the company forecasts a pronounced organic percentage increase in the low teens range in 2019.
Regarding its long-term objectives, the company said that in the Healthcare business sector, as of 2022 it aims to achieve around 2 billion euros in sales annually with newly launched medicines or compounds still in its Biopharma pipeline at the present time.
In its Life Science business sector, the company intends to continue to achieve above-market growth.
In Performance Materials, the company aims to increase sales by an average of 2% to 3% annually after 2019.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX