Merck KGaA Confirms 2020 Outlook; Prioritizes Lower Debt
September 16 2020 - 2:59AM
Dow Jones News
By Kim Richters
Merck KGaA on Wednesday backed its outlook for the full year,
and said it is currently focusing on organic growth and lowering
its debt.
The pharmaceuticals and chemicals company continues to expect
slight to moderate organic growth in full-year net sales and Ebitda
pre, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and
amortization before one-time items.
This equates to sales of 16.9 billion to 17.7 billion euros
($20.02 billion-$20.97 billion) and Ebitda pre of EUR4.45 billion
to EUR4.85 billion.
As for its health-care core business, Merck confirmed its target
of around EUR2 billion in own pipeline sales by 2022.
For its life-science business, Merck forecasts 6% to 9% average
yearly organic sales growth in the medium term.
The company said it is currently prioritizing organic growth and
lowering its debt until 2022.
While it won't rule out "large transformative deals" from 2022
onward, Merck said it is likelier to make "a number of smaller to
medium-sized acquisitions."
Write to Kim Richters at kim.richters@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 16, 2020 02:44 ET (06:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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