Degussa Fiscal 93/94 Profits Surge

German company Degussa, which incorporates the Asta Medical Group, reports group pretax income up a massive 63% to 280 million Deutschemarks ($177.9 million) and earnings per share up from 12 marks to 22 marks for the fiscal year ended September 1994. Sales for the period improved 7% to 13.8 billion marks ($8.77 billion).

Sales in the pharmaceutical sector, which now account for 22% of group turnover (20% the previous year), rose 5% to 2.15 billion marks. Degussa notes that this is the first time there has been consolidation of the Dutch dental company Elephant BV, which contributed three percentage points to this growth.

Earnings improved notably, and it is said that the Asta Medical Group achieved a significantly higher level of profitability due to its timely implementation of restructuring and efficiency improvement programs. The dental division achieved good results, but slightly lower than those of the previous year.