German pharmaceutical company Merck sales up by 8.9 pct in 2019

Source: Xinhua | 2020-03-06

Sales of Merck increased by 8.9 percent to 16.2 billion euros (18.0 billion U.S. dollars), the Germany-based pharmaceutical company announced in its financial report for the fiscal year 2019 on Thursday.

"We delivered on our promise and achieved growth for all key performance indicators," said Stefan Oschmann, chief executive officer (CEO) of Merck. In addition to strengthening the company's innovation-driven businesses, Merck would be focusing on lowering its debt.

EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization), the company's "most important financial indicator" for its operating business, increased by 15.4 percent compared to the financial year 2018 and amounted to 4.4 billion euros, Merck announced. At the same time, earnings per share increased by 9 percent to 5.56 euros.

For 2020, Merck is seeking to continue to increase its business profitability and to build on the "good development achieved in 2019". The company announced that it would grow through a high cash flow with a special focus on China, an emerging market for Merck's important healthcare business.

Following the announcement, shares of Merck increased by 3.8 percent, making the pharmaceutical company the winner of the German DAX index of Germany's 30 largest listed companies on early trading on Thursday.