Sanofi's 1st-qtr takes negative currency hit

Shares of French pharma major Sanofi (Euronext: SAN) edged up 1.7% to 86.84 euros, after the company posted first-quarter 2021 financial results that were hit by currency aspects.

In the first quarter, Sanofi sales were 8.59 billion euros ($10.38 billion), down 4.3% on a reported basis. Exchange rate movements had a negative effect of 6.7 percentage points, mainly driven by the decrease of the US dollar, Brazilian real, Russian rouble, Turkish lira, and Argentine peso and Japanese yen. At constant exchange rates (CER), Sanofi sales increased 2.4%.

First-quarter business operating income (BOI) increased 4.0% to 2.64 billion. At CER, BOI increased 13.3%. The ratio of BOI to net sales increased 2.4 percentage points to 30.7% versus the prior year. Net income was up 14.7% at 2.017 billion euros at CER. Business earnings per share (EPS) were 1.61 euros, up 15% at CER.