Schering raises profit targets after robust third quarter

0 Comments | AFP, October, 2005

BERLIN (AFP) — German drug maker Schering said it was raising its full-year profit targets after third-quarter earnings beat expectations.

"Based on the outstanding performance of our business, we are raising our profitability goal and now expect the operating margin for 2005 to be above 17 percent," Schering chairman Hubertus Erlen said in a statement.

Up until now, Germany's third-biggest drug maker had been pencilling in operating margin -- which measures underlying profit as a proportion of sales -- of between 16.5 percent and 17 percent.

Schering is targeting sales growth of close to five percent for the whole of this year when adjusted for exchange rate fluctuations.

The company said its confidence was based on a better-than-expected...