Merck profits rise on strong drug sales

First-quarter profit at Merck & Co rose on stronger sales of drugs for asthma, hypertension and arthritis, and easy comparisons from a poor performance in the year-ago quarter.

The company, which employs around 450 at its Merck Sharp and Dohme plant in Ballydine, Co Tipperary, earned $1.71 billion, or 76 US cents per share, compared with $1.63 billion, or 71 cents per share in the 2002 period. The figures were in line with forecasts but the rate of earnings growth was lower, however, than the company's historical double-digit percentage average.

Sales rose 10 per cent to $13.4 billion in the period, which is slightly ahead of analyst forecasts.

Merck affirmed earnings expectations for the year. - (Reuters)

German tax revenues fall

German tax revenues in the first quarter of 2003 were below year-earlier levels, a spokesman for the finance ministry said yesterday, although he declined to confirm a report in today's Handelsblatt business daily that the figures were 2.9 per cent below 2002 levels.

"The trend is correct," the ministry spokesman told Reuters.

The business daily says tax income in March, traditionally a month in which high revenues are expected, was down 0.3 per cent compared to March 2002. .

The newspaper said finance ministry officials were particularly concerned about income tax revenues, which rose just 0.7 per cent in the first quarter from a year ago despite wage increases, and value-added tax revenues, which were down 2.4 percent in the first quarter from a year ago. - (Reuters)

Southwest post slim profits

Southwest Airlines, the company upon which Ryanair is modelled, yesterday posted a slim first-quarter profit, using low costs and low fares to outpace large US rivals that have reported huge losses.

Southwest, the sixth-largest US airline, said it expects a second-quarter profit as well barring another major industry shock, though it will be hard to match year-earlier results because the Iraq war has disrupted second-quarter bookings.

"Although our financial performance has been exceptional relative to the airline industry as a whole, Southwest, too, has been severely impacted by the lingering effects of the 2001 terrorist attacks and the war in Iraq," chief executive Mr James Parker said in a statement.

The war and the spread of the pneumonia-like virus SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, crushed worldwide travel in the last few weeks of the first quarter. - (Reuters)

Xerox upbeat despite charge

Office equipment maker Xerox yesterday said it expects to take a first-quarter charge of $183 million (€168 million) to cover payments it may be required to make toward retirement benefits for former workers.

Xerox said it otherwise expects earnings in the period to exceed expectations, driving its stock up 5 per cent to $9.45 in active trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

Xerox said the after-tax charge of about 25 cents a share is for a case filed against its primary U.S. pension plan for salaried employees.

An Illinois court ordered Xerox's pension plan, The Retirement Income Guarantee Plan, to pay almost $300 million, on a pre-tax basis, to the retirees. - (Reuters)