Corporate and Other comprises Group administration expenses for Group functions that cannot be directly allocated to the divisions. This includes, for instance, Finance and Accounting, Tax, Procurement, Group Communications, Investor Relations and Human Resources. Corporate costs also include expenses for central, non-allocated IT functions and corporate IT projects related to the expansion and harmonization of IT systems within the Merck Group. As a result, Corporate and Other has no sales to report. Gains or losses on currency hedging also are reported in Corporate and Other.
| XLS |
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Corporate and Other | Key figures – Q1 | |||
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€ million |
Q1 – 2013 |
Q1 – 2012 |
Change |
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Total revenues |
– |
– |
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Sales |
– |
– |
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Operating result (EBIT) |
–52.4 |
–71.8 |
–27.0% |
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Margin (% of sales) |
n.m. |
n.m. |
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EBITDA |
–48.7 |
–69.9 |
–30.3% |
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Margin (% of sales) |
n.m. |
n.m. |
|
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EBITDA pre one-time items |
–45.3 |
–67.4 |
–32.8% |
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Margin (% of sales) |
n.m. |
n.m. |
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In the first quarter of 2013, administration expenses of Corporate and Other decreased by 8.1% to € 43 million (Q1 2012: € 47 million). This reflected the spending on IT services planned for, but not implemented, in the first quarter and postponed to the coming quarters. Other operating expenses dropped by 55.8% to € 9 million (Q1 2012: € 20 million) primarily owing to income from cash flow hedges, which had generated losses in the year-earlier quarter.
In total, the aforementioned effects improved EBIT by 27.0% to € -52 million (Q1 2012: € -72 million), EBITDA by 30.3% to € -49 million (Q1 2012: € -70 million), and EBITDA pre by 32.8% to € -45 million (Q1 2012: € -67 million).