German drug and chemical maker Bayer AG forecast Thursday increased turnover and earnings for the year after posting a third consecutive quarterly profit. The Leverkusen-based company said net income for the third quarter was 34 million euros (44.8 million dollars) compared with a net loss of 123 million euros in the same period last year. Sales were up by 3.4 per cent to 7.05 million euros. The company has already "comfortably achieved" its target of a rise in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of more than 10 per cent for the year, Bayer chairman Werner Wenning said. "In light of the continuing uptrend in our business in the third quarter, we are increasing our full-year forecasts for sales and underlying EBIT," Wenning said. Bayer now expects sales for 2004 as a whole to grow by about the same percentage as in the first three quarters. Operating income of 1.87 billion euros for the first nine months exceeded the full-year 2003 figure by 27.6 per cent, Wenning said. "Despite the continuing high level of raw material costs, we expect to report underlying EBIT well above the restated figure of 42 million euros for the last quarter of 2003," he said.
