Merck 2014 Annual Report Download - page 89

84 GROUP MANAGEMENT REPORT → REPORT ON ECONOMIC POSITION → Course of business and economic position
COURSE OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC POSITION
GROUP
OVERVIEW OF 2014
→ Sales increase by 5.5 % to €11.3 billion – organic growth of
4.0 %, acquisition-related increases of 3.3 % as well as slight
negative foreign exchange effects of – 1.8 %
→ Emerging Markets contribute significantly to organic sales
growth
→ EBITDA pre one-time items increase by 4.1 % to around €3.4
billion – main drivers were the Performance Materials division
due to the first-time consolidation of AZ Electronic Materials
(AZ) as well as the successful operating business of Liquid
Crystals
→ Improvement in earnings per share before one-time items by
4.8 % to €4.60
→ Business free cash flow remains at a high level
→ Net financial debt as of December 31, 2014 only increased
slightly to €0.6 billion, despite payment of the AZ purchase
price of €1.9 billion
→ Only a slight adjustment to the long-term credit ratings to “A”
with negative outlook (Standard & Poor’s) and “Baa1” with
negative outlook (Moody’s), despite the announcement of the
acquisition of the Sigma-Aldrich Corporation (Sigma-Aldrich)
for around US$ 17 billion
GROUP →
KEY FIGURES
€ million 2014 2013
Change
in %
Total revenues 11,500.8 11,095.1 3.7
Sales 11,291.5 10,700.1 5.5
Operating result (EBIT) 1,762.0 1,610.8 9.4
Margin (% of sales) 15.6 15.1
EBITDA 3,122.9 3,069.2 1.7
Margin (% of sales) 27.7 28.7
EBITDA pre one-time items 3,387.7 3,253.3 4.1
Margin (% of sales) 30.0 30.4
Earnings per share pre one-time items (€)14.60 4.39 4.8
Business free cash flow 2,605.1 2,960.0 –12.0
1 Taking into account the share split; previous year’s figures have been adjusted accordingly. See “Earnings per share” in the Notes to the Group accounts.
Development of sales and results of operations
In 2014, the Group generated sales of € 11,291 million (2013:
€10,700 million). This represented an increase in sales of 5.5 % or
€591 million compared with 2013. Organic growth of 4.0 % was
responsible for the vast majority of this improvement. Acquisi-
tions / divestments (net) increased sales overall by 3.3 % or €355
million. The first-time consolidation of AZ in the Performance
Materials division as of May2, 2014 made a positive contribution
of €375 million to Group sales in 2014. Owing to the divestment
of the Life Science division’s Discovery and Development Solutions
business field, which became effective on March31, 2014, sales
declined in comparison with 2013 by €– 20 million (see “Acquisi-
tions and divestments as well as assets held for sale and disposal
groups” in the Notes to the Group accounts). Negative foreign
exchange effects lowered sales by – 1.8 %.