Merck KGaA: confirms outlook for 'challenging' 2018

(CercleFinance.com) - Merck KGaA's profit fell in the third quarter, impacted by negative FX factors, although the German science and technology group confirmed its forecast for full-year 2018.


EBITDA pre - the key financial indicator used to steer the group's operating business - grew 3.7% in organic terms, mainly thanks to its healthcare and life science units.

However, negative FX factors caused EBITDA pre to decrease by 5.9% to 963 million in the third quarter.

In the quarter, group sales rose by 6.6% to 3.7 billion euros. Organic sales growth reached 8.8%.

In its report, Merck confirmed its previous forecast of a slight organic decline (-1% to -3%) in group EBITDA pre compared with the previous year.

"2018 was a challenging year for Merck. We made future-oriented decisions that will lead to profitable growth as of 2019," said CEO Stefan Oschmann.

Merck KGaA shares are currently down 0.7% at 93.6 euros, although are outperforming the 1.2% fall in Germany's blue-chip DAX index.

Copyright (c) 2018 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.