By Adria Calatayud

Germany's Merck KGaA said Thursday that it expects a challenging 2023, with adjusted earnings forecast to be stable or decline slightly and a hit from foreign-exchange rates, as it reported a rise in after-tax profit and net sales for last year.

The life-sciences and electronics company said after-tax profit for 2022 was 3.34 billion euros ($3.56 billion) compared with EUR3.07 billion in 2021. Net sales rose 13% to EUR22.23 billion, with life-science sales up 15% and sales up 11% in both healthcare and electronics.

Merck said Ebitda pre--a closely-watched company metric which measures earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization before one-time items--grew 12% to EUR6.85 billion.

Analysts expected 2022 Ebitda pre to come in at EUR6.92 billion on net sales of EUR22.25 billion, according to consensus estimates provided by the company.

Merck said it expects 2023 to be a challenging year due to a slowdown in the semiconductor market, falling Covid-19-related demand, high inflation and negative foreign-exchange effects. The company said it expects further organic growth in net sales, but that organic Ebitda pre will fall slightly or be stable due to cost inflation.

The company proposed a dividend for 2022 to EUR2.20 a share, up 19% on year.

Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 02, 2023 01:29 ET (06:29 GMT)

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