Merial sales results announced

Companion animal franchise sales in the fourth quarter 2010 were down 3.3% to $304 million while Production animal franchise sales reached $274 million, up 1.2% sustained by good performance of the Avian and Ruminant segments.

 

Full-year 2010 net sales of Merial reached $2,635 million, up 2.6% (+3.2% on a reported basis). Frontlinefamily sales reached $1,027 million, an increase of 2.4%, with growth in the U.S. (+7.6%) largely offsetting theimpact of Frontlinebranded generics in Europe. Companion animal franchise sales were $1,707 million, an  increase of +1.4%. Sales of the production animal franchise reached $928 million, an increase of 5.0%. Merialrecorded strong growth in 2010 in Emerging Markets (+10.4%). In the U.S. and Western Europe salesperformance was +3.0% and -2.1%, respectively.

In March 2010, Sanofi-Aventis exercised its option to combine Merial with Intervet/Schering-Plough, Merck’s Animal Health business, to create a global leader in Animal Health. The new joint venture Merial Intervet which will be equally owned by Merck and Sanofi-Aventis, is subject to execution of the final agreement, antitrust review in the U.S., Europe and other countries and other customary closing conditions. Closing of the transaction is expected in the first half of 2011.

 

As the option to combine Merial with Intervet/Schering-Plough has been exercised, Sanofi-Aventis continues to recognise the contribution from Merial on a separate line, “Share of profit/loss of Merial” (Merial sales are not consolidated), in accordance with IFRS 5.