Roche faces strong currency winds in the first quarter
Keystone-SDA
Swiss pharma firm Roche suffered from exchange rate effects in the first quarter. Sales in the reporting currency, the Swiss franc, were thus below the previous year’s figure after the first three months.
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Roche generated sales of CHF14.7 billion ($18.7 billion) between January and March. While this represents a decrease of 5% in the reporting currency of Swiss francs, at constant exchange rates there was an increase of 6%. The Group thus met its own target, which is based on constant exchange rates.
At CHF11.5 billion (-4%), the Pharmaceuticals Division, as usual, contributed the lion’s share of Group sales. Roche’s diagnostics business generated sales of CHF3.3 billion (-7%).
Roche traditionally does not publish profit figures for odd-numbered quarters.
Roche’s reported figures are still in line with analysts’ estimates.
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The management team headed by CEO Thomas Schinecker confirmed its previous guidance for the rest of the year.
At constant exchange rates, sales are expected to increase by a mid-single-digit percentage. Core earnings per share are expected to increase in the high single-digit percentage range. In addition, the Group will continue to endeavour to increase the dividend in Swiss francs.
Translated from German by AI/jdp
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