- All four divisions contribute to solid organic sales growth of the Group
- EBITDA pre one-time items rises slightly to € 807 million despite declining royalty and license income as well as currency headwinds
- Earnings per share before one-time items increase by 9.5% to € 2.31
- Kley: “Taking the successful acquisition of AZ Electronic Materials into account, we expect a moderate increase in sales and EBITDA pre one-time items in 2014.”
Darmstadt, Germany, May 15, 2014 – Merck, a leading company for innovative and top-quality high-tech products in the pharmaceutical and chemical sectors, achieved organic sales growth of 3.7% in the first quarter of 2014. This was, however, more than offset by negative foreign exchange effects of 5.4%. Overall, sales slipped slightly by around € 46 million in the first quarter of 2014 to € 2.6 billion (Q1 2013: € 2.7 billion). EBITDA pre one-time items rose by 0.7% to € 807 million despite the negative exchange rate effects and significantly lower royalty, license and commission income. The EBITDA margin pre one-time items increased again, reaching 30.9%, which was higher than the figures for both the full year 2013 and the year-earlier quarter.
“Merck got off to a solid start in 2014. We increased our organic sales, which means we sold more. In addition, we earned more on what we sold. Especially in view of the challenging market environment that we expect to face in 2014, our cost control and targeted growth initiatives are paying off across all our divisions,” said Karl-Ludwig Kley, Chairman of the Executive Board.
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