Sanofi Forecasts 10% Rise In 1996 Profits

French pharmaceutical company Sanofi has said it expects a 10% rise in profits in 1996 following a 19% increase in 1995, and to show the best stock exchange performance of the 40 companies making up the CAC index on the Paris bourse.

Jean-Francois Dehecq, Sanofi's president, has denied reports and rumors of negotiations about mergers with Rhone-Poulenc and Synthelabo and said at the firm's annual general meeting that there would be no point in putting money on the table and then "diluting the value of the bond in advance" before "we have produced our future major drug products."

Sanofi has nonetheless said formally that it does not rule out "strategic operations" which would have an immediate beneficial impact on results. The company has managed to reduce its indebtedness to zero after sell-offs to fund the acquisition of Sterling of the USA and is, in Mr Dehecq's words, "currently in the situation of being a lender."