Philips Healthcare sees slight sales uptick in Q4, FY11

Philips Healthcare has reported a single-digit increase in sales for the fourth quarter of 2011 over the comparable 2010 fourth quarter, and the 2011 fiscal year over 2010.

The healthcare unit’s sales grew 3 percent to EUR 2.72 billion ($3.58 billion U.S.), driven by growth in most businesses, notably customer services and home healthcare solutions units, for the 2011 fourth quarter, compared with the previous year’s fourth quarter. For the full-year 2011 results, Philips Healthcare’s sales grew 5 percent on a comparable basis to EUR 8.85 billion ($11.65 billion U.S.) from EUR 8.6 billion ($11.33 billion U.S.) in 2010.

The net operating capital in the 2011 fourth quarter was EUR 8.42 billion, compared with EUR 8.9 billion in the 2010 fourth quarter. In the same quarter-over-quarter period, Philips Healthcare added 1,702 full-time employees (FTEs) to equal 37,955 FTEs.

From a regional perspective, comparable sales in North America grew 6 percent. Sales in growth geographies grew 5 percent. According to the company, market weakness in Europe led to postponement of deliveries and affected margin improvement plans for imaging systems.

Comparable equipment order intake grew 3 percent year-over-year. Equipment orders in emerging markets grew by 17 percent.

“We are cautious about 2012 given the uncertainty in the global economy, and Europe in particular … while we are concerned about the economic environment, all of us at Philips are fully committed to improve our operational performance to achieve our mid-term (2013) financial targets,” said Frans van Houten, CEO of Royal Philips Electronics.

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