Bayer HealthCare achieves year-on-year growth in 2012

Bayer HealthCare has performed strongly in 2012, according to the latest figures from the Bayer group's financial report for the year.

The healthcare division of the company generated sales of 18.61 billion euros (16.07 billion pounds) for 2012, up by 8.4 percent year over year, with both its pharmaceuticals and consumer health divisions contributing to this increase.

Drivers of this improvement included the rising demand for the anticoagulant Xarelto, above-market growth for the company's non-prescription medicines business and an expanding presence in emerging nations.

This helped the Bayer group as a whole to achieve annual sales of 39.76 billion euros, up by 8.8 percent annually.

Bayer chief executive officer Dr Marijn Dekkers said: "We continued to grow dynamically and achieved our targets for the group. All the subgroups posted gains in sales and earnings before special items."

This week also saw Bayer propose a dividend increase to 1.90 euros per share for 2012, reflecting the positive business developments of the last year.