Good Start To 1996 For Bayer

First-quarter 1996 group sales at Germany's Bayer improved 4% to 12.2 billion Deutschemarks ($7.99 billion), but this rise was almost entirely due to the first-time inclusion of ABS plastics, acquired from Monsanto. Group income before tax was up 14% at 140 million marks, and net earnings rose 19% to 110 million marks.

Health care sales, at 2.89 billion marks ($1.89 billion), were 3.1% higher in D-mark terms and showed an increase of 4.4% in local currencies. Bayer AG turnover rose 0.4% to 5.04 billion marks, and produced pretax earnings of 680 million marks, a rise of 19.2%. Within the group, particularly good sales performance was seen in North America, up 16%, while growth in Europe was just 1%. Bayer says the current year has got off to a good start; it is confident of achieving pretax earnings growth of 10% planned for the full year.