Chemicals and drugs giant Bayer stuck to its full-year targets after reporting a jump in second-quarter profits that narrowly beat market forecasts. "We are pleased with the way our business performed," chief executive Marijn Dekkers said. "We confirm the full-year sales and earnings forecast that we raised in April."
Leverkusen, Germany-based Bayer said net income in the April-June period rose 40.9% to 747 million euros (US$1.1 billion), exceeding expectations of 736 million euros according to analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires.
Sales inched up 0.8% to 9.3 billion euros, or by 5.4% when adjusted for currency and other effects.
Operating profit before special items rose 5.8% to 2.0 billion euros.
Sales at Bayer's HealthCare division fell 2.3% to 4.2 billion euros but rose 3.1% at its CropScience unit to 1.9 billion euros and by 3.5% at MaterialScience to 2.8 billion euros.
For the whole of 2011, Bayer said it still expect sales of between 36-37 billion euros, operating profit before special items of more than 7.5 billion euros and a 15% rise in earnings per share.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2011
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