BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - German drug major Merck KgaA (MKGAY.PK) reported Thursday that its first-quarter Group net income increased 18 percent to 880 million euros.
Profit after tax was 884 million euros, up 18.2 percent from last year's 748 million euros. Earnings per share improved 17.4 percent to 2.02 euros from 1.72 euros a year ago.
Earnings per share pre was 2.41 euros, compared to 2.18 euros a year earlier.
EBITDA pre went up 7.8 percent to 1.63 billion euros, while EBITDA pre margin fell to 31.3 percent from 32.6 percent last year.
Net sales increased 12.2 percent to 5.20 billion euros from prior year's 4.63 billion euros. Organic growth of Group sales was attributable to all three business sectors and totaled 7.8 percent.
Looking ahead, Merck specified its forecast for fiscal 2022, compared to previous estimate of strong organic growth in EBITDA pre and net sales.
For EBITDA pre, Merck now expects an organic increase of between 5 percent and 9 percent and forecasts EBITDA pre in a range between 6.6 billion euros and 7.1 billion euros, compared to prior year's 6.1 billion euros.
The forecast for earnings per share pre is in a range between 9.60 euros and 10.50 euros.
Further, the company now expects organic sales growth of 6 percent to 9 percent and net sales of between 21.6 billion euros and 22.8 billion euros, compared to last year's 19.7 billion euros.
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