FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Merck KGaA (DE:MRCG) lifted its full-year guidance for core earnings before one-offs to include the $17 billion acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich (O:SIAL), which has cleared regulatory hurdles.
The German drugs and chemicals maker on Thursday said it now sees adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of between 3.58-3.65 billion euros (2.52-2.57 billion pounds), where it had previously expected 3.45-3.55 billion.
In the third quarter, adjusted EBITDA gained 10 percent to 944 million euros, beating the 882 million expected on average by analysts in a Reuters poll.