- Sales grow to exceed the € 10 billion for the first time driven by solid organic growth rates of the three largest divisions as well as changes from foreign exchange rates
- Strong operational performance while substantially advancing with the transformation of the company
- Good profitability and strong working capital management lead to increased free cash flow
- Merck Serono generates solid top and bottom-line results while implementing major restructuring programs and efficiency initiatives across global administrative functions, R&D operations and country organizations
- Performance Materials delivers exceptional performance driven by liquid crystal materials, while the Pigments business remains sluggish
- Sales growth of Merck Millipore driven by all business units, predominantly through biotech manufacturing products in Process Solutions
- Net financial debt significantly lowered to below € 2 billion
- Proposal to increase dividend by 13% to € 1.70 demonstrates the current and future strength of the underlying business
Merck Group | Key figures |
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
€ million |
2012 |
2011 |
Change |
11,172.9 |
10,276.4 |
8.7 |
|
Sales |
10,740.8 |
9,905.9 |
8.4 |
Operating result (EBIT) |
963.6 |
1,132.1 |
–14.9 |
Margin (% of sales) |
9.0 |
11.4 |
– |
2,360.2 |
2,730.9 |
–13.6 |
|
Margin (% of sales) |
22.0 |
27.6 |
– |
EBITDA pre one-time items |
2,964.9 |
2,723.8 |
8.9 |
Margin (% of sales) |
27.6 |
27.5 |
– |
EPS pre one-time items (in €) |
7.61 |
6.79 |
12.1 |
Free cash flow |
2,039.9 |
1,436.4 |
42.0 |
search hit 12
