UCB Tries To Quells Takeover Speculation

Belgian drugs and chemical group UCB, whose share price has rocketed inthe past year partly on rumors of a pending takeover, has said it knows of no reason for the sharp rise. According to the Financial Times, market speculation has been that either Johnson & Johnson or Pfizer (which markets UCB's antihistamine Zyrtec [cetirizine] in the USA) are after the company.

Pretax Profits Rise 33% The comments were made by UCB chairman Georges Jacobs, presenting the group's financial results for the first half of 1997. These showed that sales had increased 15% to 30.05 billion Belgian francs ($780.4 million) and pretax profits were 33% higher at 3.89 billion francs. Profits after tax, however, were down 3.2% at 4.11 billion francs. The company notes that the exceptional profits are the result of selling shares in Financiere d'Obourg held by Societe Financiere UCB.

It adds that the pharmaceutical sector continued to expand in the majority of its markets. Sales of Zyrtec have benefited from the successful launch of the product in the USA and from good demand in the spring. Ordinary profits for the six months were 2.36 billion francs, up 22.4%). US sales of Zyrtec by UCB and licensee Pfizer amounted to $115 million in the period.