BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - German drug giant Merck KgaA (MKGAY.PK) reported that its first-quarter profit after tax rose 63.3% to 748 million euros from 458 million euros in the prior year. Earnings per share was 1.72 euros up from 1.05 euros in the prior year.
Earnings per share pre soared by 45.3% to 2.18 euros from the previous year.
The operating result EBIT rose by 45.7% to 1.0 billion euros from the prior year. Group EBITDA pre soared by 27.9% to 1.5 billion euros in comparison with the year-earlier quarter.
Group sales increased by 6.0% to 4.6 billion euros from last year, reflecting the high organic growth of the Life Science business sector.
Organically, sales increased by 12.2%, to which all three business sectors contributed. The growth was offset by negative foreign exchange effects of -5.8%, which were primarily attributable to the U.S. dollar, the Brazilian real and the Japanese yen.
As already communicated on May 4, 2021, the company raised its forecast for fiscal 2021. Merck expects Group sales in a range between 18.5 billion euros and 19.5 billion euros and forecasts EBITDA pre of between 5.4 billion euros and 5.8 billion euros.
The company expects earnings per share pre in a range between 7.50 euros and 8.20 euros.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX