Total assets of the Merck Group as of March 31, 2010, amounted to EUR 20,584 million. This corresponds to a shift of EUR 3,871 million or 23% over the year-earlier period. This increase mainly relates to cash inflows from bonds issued in the first quarter with a total volume of EUR 3.2 billion. The cash inflow from these bonds will be used for the acquisition of Millipore. The equity ratio declined from 56.9% at the beginning of the year to 48.6% as of March 31, 2010. Because of short-term investing of the funds from the bond issue, there are no effects on net debt. As a result, net debt could be reduced further, so that at the end of the quarter under review, it amounted to EUR 82 million compared to EUR 263 million as of December 31, 2009.
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