Sankyo Pharma, which is to merge with fellow Japanese firm Daiichi Pharmaceutical, on Friday reported an 11% jump in net profits for the full-year 2004 to 48.2 billion yen, but net sales saw a slight 1.4% drop to 587.8 billion yen.
Sankyo confirmed in February that it would buy Daiichi [[25/02/05a]], and says it expects to “rapidly” achieve 1 trillion yen in sales and an operating income ratio of 20% or more. On Friday it revealed the two firms had signed a definitive agreement for the creation of Daiichi Sankyo – as the new company will be known. The first stage will be the creation of a joint holding company, pending shareholder and regulatory approval, which will take place via a stock transfer at the end of September. On completion of this stock transfer, Sankyo and Daiichi will become subsidiaries of the holding company and will be de-listed from stock exchanges.
For 2005, Sankyo anticipates reeling in some 557.0 billion yen in net sales but expects profits to slump to 37.0 billion yen.
