Near 20% Lift In Pretax Profits For Synthelabo

French pharmaceutical company Synthelabo reports first-half 1997 salesof 5.76 billion French francs ($938.3 million), an increase of 12.4%. On a comparable basis, the rise was 7.0%.

Profit before taxes, employee profit-sharing, capital gains and losses and goodwill amortization is estimated at 859 million francs for the six months, a rise of 19.7% on the like, year-earlier period.

Synthelabo says that for the whole of 1997, net profit attributable to the group should increase at a lower rate than profit before taxes because of an increase in the effective tax rate, partly due to the fiscal measures announced by the French government, the impact of which is expected to be around 40 million francs.