German pharmaceutical giant Bayer said yesterday it suffered a surprise fourth-quarter loss owing to charges that included a write-down on its Schering brand and costs of US legal proceedings.
Bayer posted a fourth--quarter net loss of 145 million euros (US$200 million), compared with a profit of 153 million euros in the same period of 2009, a statement said.
FORECASTS
Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast a fourth-quarter net profit of 159 million euros.
Core earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) before special items in the quarter gained 11.6 percent on the year to 1.69 billion euros, a sign the group was still profitable.
That result exceeded analyst forecasts for 1.67 billion euros.
ASPIRIN MAKER
For all of last year, the maker of Aspirin made a net profit of 1.3 billion euros, down from 1.36 billion after exceptional charges of 1.72 billion euros and despite a 12.6 percent gain in sales to a record 35.1 billion euros.
The charges included a write-down of 405 million euros to wind down the group’s Schering brand and 526 million euros stemming from US legal costs and settlements following lawsuits targeting Bayer’s genetically modified rice.
Operating profit before special items gained 18 percent to 4.45 billion euros and last year’s EBITDA was 9.7 percent higher at 7.1 billion euros.
MATERIALSCIENCE
Bayer said earnings at its -MaterialScience unit tripled as the global economic rebound boosted demand for construction materials but sales at its HealthCare division were “held back by generic competition and health system reforms.”
The group’s third main division, CropScience, suffered from a contracting market for conventional crop protection products, Bayer said.
For next year, it forecast sales growth of between 4 percent and 6 percent to 35-36 billion euros, assuming the global economy continues to expand, and EBITDA before special items of around 7.5 billion euros.
RECORD
Research investment should match the record level for last year of about 3.1 billion euros.
“We are confident for this year, which has gotten off to a successful start,” chairman Marijn Dekkers said in the statement.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by