Merck KGaA Expects Organic Sales, Earnings Growth This Year
By Dominic Chopping
Germany's Merck KGaA expects to gradually return to organic growth this year after reporting a slump in earnings during 2023, which it called a "transitional" year.
The life-sciences and electronics company said profit after tax last year fell to 2.83 billion euros ($3.09 billion) from EUR3.34 billion in 2022 as sales slipped 5.6% to EUR20.99 billion.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization before one-time items--the company's preferred profitability metric--fell 14% to EUR5.88 billion.
Analysts expected 2023 pre-items Ebitda at EUR5.86 billion on net sales of EUR20.97 billion, according to consensus estimates provided by the company.
Merck said the 2023 sales and earnings performance of the life science business sector was hurt by sharply lower Covid-19-related sales while the process solutions business slowed due to inventory destocking.
In electronics, earnings were weighed by the continuing cyclical slowdown in the semiconductor industry, but healthcare earnings rose.
"We delivered solid results in a transitional year 2023," said Chief Executive Belen Garijo. "Now, we are fully focusing on gradually returning to growth during fiscal 2024."
The company expects slight to moderate organic sales and pre-items Ebitda growth in 2024.
The company proposed an unchanged dividend for 2023 of EUR2.20 a share.
Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 07, 2024 01:45 ET (06:45 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.-
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