Result and profitability improved

The first half of 2018 was challenging yet successful. Though our sales growth was slowed by additional price reduction measures for medications, which were significantly higher than originally announced by the authorities, we were still able to considerably improve our result and profitability.

Due to the aforementioned price reduction measures, we expect sales for 2018 to be at the lower end of the sales forecast range of +2% to +3% communicated in March 2018. Thanks to improved profitability, we expect EBIT to be at least at the same level as in 2017, which, excluding the one-off effects in 2017, corresponds to an operational increase of at least 5%. Consequently, the outlook for dividend payments remains unchanged, and we aim to propose a dividend of at least at the same level as the prior year at our second Annual General Meeting in 2019.

We would like to thank our employees for their tireless commitment and you, our shareholders, for your trust.

Bern, 7 August 2018