Rhone-Poulenc's Net Income Plunges

French chemical company Rhone-Poulenc revealed a decline of 69% in its net income for the first six months of 1994 to 337 million French francs ($62.14 million). The company said that the decline was a result of restructuring provisions and non-recurring items. Sales in the first half of the year advanced 5.9% to 42.38 billion francs ($7.81 billion).

The major part of the restructuring provisions, 699 million francs, is attributable to the company's pharmaceutical unit in the USA, Rhone-Poulenc Rorer.

R-P is understood to be looking to sell off some of its non-strategic interests to the tune of $1.5 billion in order to pay for the costs of its restructuring program. The first operation is the sale of pharmaceutical subsidiary Lipha to Merck of Germany. The 43% stake in Lipha is said to be worth around 1.55 billion francs.