Sales Fall But Profit Up 27% At BASF

In the first quarter of 1996, German chemical and pharmaceutical group BASF said that profits made "gratifying progress," rising 27.3% for the group to 1.1 billion Deutschemarks ($717.3 million). Turnover declined 1.9% to 11.8 billion marks.

The rather weak economic climate since the second half of 1995 left its mark on the pattern of business in the 1996 first quarter, noted BASF.

It said that its strategy to strengthen areas of business that are resistant to economic fluctuations, such as pharmaceuticals, is bearing fruit. The group's health and nutrition division achieved an 18% increase in sales to 2.4 billion marks. In the pharmaceutical sector, the increase in comparision with the year-earlier period is influenced by the takeover of the pharmaceutical operations of the UK company Boots (Marketletters passim).