GlaxoSmithKline Sees Higher Sales
October 28 2015 - 9:20AM
Dow Jones News
LONDON—GlaxoSmithKline PLC reported climbing sales but lower
profits in the third quarter of 2015 on Wednesday, as it continued
its shift to a higher-volume, lower-margin business following its
$20 billion asset swap deal with Novartis AG.
The company said revenue increased 9% to £ 6.13 billion ($9.37
billion) in the three months to Sept. 30. Core operating profit, a
measure which strips out certain one-off items, dipped 9% to £ 1.72
billion, though net profit, at £ 538 million, was 34% higher than a
year ago. Analysts had expected revenue of £ 6.1 billion and core
operating profit of £ 1.5 billion.
Glaxo's lower profit in the third quarter was partly due to its
shift toward low-margin vaccines at the expense of more profitable
cancer drugs following its asset swap with Novartis.
The deal, which involved Glaxo trading its cancer drugs for the
Swiss company's vaccines business, closed in the second quarter of
this year. The slump in core operating profit was also driven by
the year-earlier figure benefiting from a one-off gain of £ 219
million.
The strength of the pound dampened Glaxo's results. Adjusting
for currency headwinds, revenue increased 11% and core operating
profit fell 5%.
Write to Denise Roland at Denise.Roland@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 28, 2015 09:05 ET (13:05 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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