Levitra

EBIT of Bayer HealthCare before special items climbed by 26.9 percent to EUR 1,319 million (2004: EUR 1,039 million), with underlying earnings growth strongest in the Pharmaceuticals, Biological Products and Consumer Care divisions.

The underlying EBITDA margin rose to 18.9 percent, which means HealthCare has already exceeded the margin of more than 17 percent targeted for 2006.

In a difficult market environment, sales of Bayer CropScience in 2005 were slightly lower at EUR 5,896 million (2004: EUR 5,946 million).

This was due in particular to lower sales of insecticides and fungicides, which were held back by the exceptionally long droughts in Brazil, southern Europe and Australia.

Nonetheless, underlying EBIT of Bayer CropScience rose by 31.2 percent to EUR 685 million (2004: EUR 522 million), mainly because of the absence of goodwill amortization.

Without this effect, underlying EBIT rose by 6 percent.

The underlying EBITDA margin rose to 21.6 percent.

Against the background of adverse market development, especially in Brazil, Bayer CropScience will not yet be able to achieve its target EBITDA margin of 25 percent for 2006, Wenning said.

Further restructuring will be carried out to improve the subgroup’s profitability.

Bayer MaterialScience achieved by far the highest growth rates for both...

Bayer's crop science division had a slight decline in sales of less than 1 percent to euro5.89 billion (US$7.07 billion) while its MaterialScience unit, which produces and sells plastics, reported growth of 24.4 percent to euro10.69 billion (US$12.8 billion) in 2005.

Shares of Bayer were down nearly 3.3 percent to euro32.69 (US$39.29) in Frankfurt trading.

- On the Net: http://www.bayer.com Copyright 2005, by The Associated Press.

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He reiterated the view that two of Bayer's new drugs, Nexavar (sorafenib) for non-small cell lung cancer and the oral Factor Xa inhibitor for thrombotic diseases, could both top a billion euros in sales.

For the full-year, sales rose 18% to 27.4 billion euros, while net income jumped 133% to 1.6 billion euros.

More details from Bayer's annual results conference will be reported tomorrow.

Relevant Newsonline articles:Bayer expects net income of 1.6B euros for 2005Bayer starts second pivotal trial of alfimepraseBayer/Onyx start Ph III trial of Nexavar for NSCLCBayer's Trasylol linked to kidney failureBayer buys Pritor business from GSKNexavar cleared in USA for kidney cancerBayer upbeat at R&D showcaseBayer soars in Q3 on OTC boostOther sources:http://www.bayer.comemail this pageback to headlines disclaimer site design by DJM ...