Merck KGaA strong 3rd-qtr fueled by Sigma-Aldrich and healthcare

15 November 2016

Germany’s Merck KGaA (MRK: DE) saw its shares rise 1.32% at 96.19 euros mid-morning, after the company announced financial results for the third quarter of 2016, sowing that group sales had increased 19.3% to 3.7 billion euros ($3.96 billion).

Thanks to the Life Science business sector, group sales increased organically by 0.9%, while negative exchange rate effects caused sales to decline slightly by -0.6%. Acquisition-related sales growth of 19.0% mainly reflects the Sigma-Aldrich transaction, which closed in November 2015. From a geographic perspective, North America and Latin America fueled organic growth.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA(, Merck's key earnings indicator, grew sharply by 24.3% to 1.17 billion euros, beating the anticipated 1.12 billion euros, according to a recent poll of analysts conducted by The Wall Street Journal. This was mainly attributable to the Sigma-Aldrich acquisition and the good operating performance in Life Science.

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