Pliva's Interim Profits Rise 49.5%

Croatian company Pliva has announced a rise of 49.5% in its pretax profits for the January-June 1996 period to 368.3 million kuna ($70.2 million). The firm's earnings per share rose from 457 kuna in the 1995 first half to 520 kuna, according to Reuters.

Zeljko Covic, Pliva's chief executive, said: "this is a significant rise, taking into account that (at the end of) June there were 60,000 more shares outstanding than in the year-ago period." He added that the results were extremely good and that all businesses had recorded output growth.

Exports rose to $102 million from $86 million at the expense of domestic sales, the percentage of which shrank from 37% to 34% of the total.