Results of Q1 2022

• Group sales increase by 12.2% to € 5.2 billion; EBITDA pre up 7.8% to € 1.6 billion; EBITDA pre margin 31.3%
• Growth story continues to materialize
• High margins in all three businesses despite challenging economic headwinds and increasing global uncertainty

Forecast for fiscal 2022

• Company specifies forecast for net sales, EBITDA pre and earnings per share pre
• Net sales between € 21.6 billion and € 22.8 billion; EBITDA pre in a range between € 6.6 billion and € 7.1 billion; earnings per share pre between € 9.60 and € 10.50

Merck, a leading science and technology company, achieved strong results in the first quarter of 2022. Net sales increased by 12.2% to € 5,198 million compared with the year-earlier quarter. All three business sectors contributed to this growth. The key drivers were the company’s Big 3 businesses – the Process Solutions business of Life Science, new Healthcare products and the Semiconductor Solutions business of Electronics. EBITDA pre, the most important financial indicator used to steer operating business, rose by 7.8% to € 1,629 million. Merck specified the qualitative forecast for fiscal 2022 given in March 2022 and now expects organic sales growth of 6% to 9% and net sales of between € 21.6 billion and € 22.8 billion (2021: € 19.7 billion). For EBITDA pre, Merck expects an organic increase of between 5% and 9% and forecasts EBITDA pre in a range between € 6.6 billion and € 7.1 billion (2021: € 6.1 billion).

“Merck has made a promising start to 2022, with our Big 3 generating strong growth and attractive margins. The outstanding quarter by Life Science demonstrates that our core business is not reliant on Covid-19 to deliver impressive growth. Our new medicines, including Bavencio and Mavenclad, were primarily responsible for growth in Healthcare. Electronics also had a robust quarter, thanks to the excellent performance of Semiconductor Solutions. We are especially pleased that our growth story continues to materialize despite significant market headwinds caused by current geopolitical tensions,” said Belén Garijo, Chair of the Executive Board and and CEO of Merck.

During the first quarter Merck continued to implement its strategic agenda on the path towards becoming the global 21st century science and technology pioneer. In February, the company completed the acquisition of Exelead Inc., USA, (Exelead) a biopharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) and is driving its growth further with the new business model for Life Science, which was also announced in February.

Organic growth driven by all three business sectors

Organic growth of Group sales was attributable to all three business sectors and totaled 7.8%. Foreign exchange effects had a positive impact of 4.4% on net sales. This was primarily attributable to the U.S. dollar, the Chinese renminbi and the Taiwan dollar. Portfolio changes increased Group net sales by € 5 million or 0.1%. This resulted from the acquisition of Exelead, which closed on February 22, 2022.

EBITDA pre grew organically by 1.6% and was supported by positive foreign exchange effects of 6.4%. This was partly offset by negative portfolio effects of
–0.2%, which were largely attributable to the Exelead acquisition. Relative to net sales, the EBITDA pre margin was 31.3% in the first quarter of 2022. The operating result EBIT rose by 12.5% to € 1,173 million; Group net income increased by 17.9% to € 880 million. Earnings per share pre improved by 10.6% to € 2.41. Net financial debt amounted to € 9.2 billion on March 31, 2022; the increase from € 8.8 billion at the end of December resulted primarily from the acquisition of Exelead.