The free cash flow of the Merck Group was € 482 million in the third quarter of 2011 as compared with € -4,383 million in the year-ago quarter. The sharp change is due primarily to last year’s purchase price payment for the acquisition of Millipore. Underlying free cash flow (free cash flow excluding acquisitions and divestments) amounted to € 516 million in the third quarter of 2011 and to € 960 million in the period from January through September 2011. This compares with € 561 million in the year-ago quarter and € 1,127 million in the first nine months of 2010. In the third quarter of 2011, free cash flow on revenues (FCR: defined as underlying free cash flow as a proportion of total revenues) was 20.4% compared with 23.0% in the third quarter of 2010. For the period from January through September 2011, free cash flow on revenues totaled 12.5% compared with 16.7% in the year-ago period.
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