Roche Posts "Improving" Earnings In 1994 1st Half

Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche has disclosed earnings figures for the first half reporting period for the first time. For the six months ending June 1994, Roche said that it achieved net income of 1.62 billion Swiss francs ($1.25 billion). Operating earnings amounted to 1.56 billion francs in the first half. Roche did not provide any comparative figures but said that "the earnings situation ... continued to improve." The increase was attributed to a steady improvement in the operating results and higher financial revenues.

As already reported (Marketletter July 18), group sales were 7.3 billion francs. 1.09 billion francs was spent on R&D in the first half of the year, representing around 15% of sales.

Roche noted that during the half-year period all major currencies, except the yen, were clearly lower in value in relation to the Swiss franc. The rate of the US dollar, Roche's most important foreign currency, decreased on average by more than 3% compared to the preceding year.