Net Income Up 45% In 1st Half At R Uclaf

Including a number of exceptional items, French pharmaceutical company Roussel Uclaf's net income for the first six months of 1996 advanced 44.8% to just over 1 billion French francs ($198.5 million). These items included net capital gains slightly over 400 million francs, and net restructuring provisions of over 130 million francs. Restated for these items, comparable net income rose 14.3%.

Sales for the first half were ahead 8.3% to 8.6 billion francs, while on a comparable basis the growth was 4.7%. Health care sales were up 7.7%, or 2.6% on a comparable basis, to 6.5 billion francs.

RU said that group pharmaceutical turnover showed satisfactory growth in most markets, but slowed noticably in France and Japan, where business conditions were more difficult than in 1995. Turnover was also affected by currency in Japan.