Financial News

Reporting on its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year to 31 December 2010, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc saw revenues grow by 7% to $10.79 billion for the year with earnings per share rising 17% to a record $3.57. The company, which spent $600 million during the year on 11 complementary acquisitions, is also bringing Dionex under its banner for $2.1 billion, creating a leading chromatography offering. Significant investments in Asia- Pac region, including a new China Technology Centre in Shanghai continue while R&D spend which exceeded $40 million, has further strengthened leadership position, the report said.

$1 billion was spent to repurchase 20.7 million shares"We had a great year in 2010," said Marc N. Casper, President and Chief Executive Officer of Thermo Fisher Scientific. "We achieved our financial goals by successfully executing our plan and reinforced our leading position through continued innovation and commercial expansion. "We were especially
pleased to achieve record adjusted EPS in 2010 on good top-line results. We also delivered 80 basis points of adjusted margin expansion for the year while significantly increasing our investments in new technologies and emerging global markets to further strengthen our depth of capabilities. In addition, we deployed $1.6 billion of capital on share buybacks and complementary acquisitions." Casper added: "In 2011, our goal is to build on our strong
operating performance and generate solid returns from the investments we are making. This combination puts us in a unique position to create value for our customers, employees and shareholders this year and for the long term."

Danaher Corporation announced GAAP net earnings for the quarter ended 31st December, 2010 were $473.9 million, or $0.69 per diluted share, a 72.5% increase over GAAP diluted net earnings per share of $0.40 for the same period in 2009. On a non-GAAP basis after adjustments, 2010 fourth quarter adjusted net earnings were $455.4 million, or $0.67 per diluted share, a 19.5% increase over 2009 fourth quarter adjusted diluted net earnings per share of $0.56. Sales for the 2010 fourth quarter were $3.6 billion, 15% higher than the $3.1 billion reported a year earlier. Core revenues increased 13% in the quarter compared to the fourth quarter of 2009. GAAP net earnings for the full year 2010 were $1.8 billion, or $2.64 per diluted share, compared with GAAP net earnings of $1.2 billion, or $1.73 per diluted share for the full year 2009. Revenues for the full year 2010 were $13.2 billion compared to $11.2 billion for the full year 2009, an increase of 18%. Core revenues increased 11.5% for the full year 2010 compared to the full year 2009.

H. Lawrence Culp, Jr, President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "2010 was an outstanding year for Danaher. We continued to evolve the portfolio toward higher growth, higher technology, more global businesses serving markets where our brands are clear leaders. The investments we have made in innovation and emerging markets are driving growth and share gains. We generated $1.87 billion of free cash flow in 2010 and continue to seek to deploy our cash back into the business through acquisitions. We believe we are well positioned heading into 2011."

Agilent Technologies, Inc has reported revenues of $1.52 billion for the first fiscal quarter ended 31st January 2011, 25 percent above one year ago, or 19 percent excluding the effects of the Varian acquisition and recent divestitures. First-quarter GAAP net income was $193 million, or $0.54 per diluted share. Last year’s first-quarter GAAP net income was $79 million, or $0.22 per share. During the first quarter, Agilent had intangible amortisation of $28 million, Varian-related integration costs of $19 million, and restructuring charges of $13 million. It also recognised a tax benefit of $41 million. Excluding these items, Agilent reported first-quarter adjusted net income of $212 million, or $0.60 per share. Bill Sullivan, Agilent President and CEO, said: "We had an excellent start to the year as we continued to demonstrate the strength of our product portfolio. All regions throughout the world posted double-digit organic revenue growth."Electronic Measurement revenues were up 23 percent over a year ago. Orders and revenues were both up 31% excluding the effects of the Network Solutions divestiture. Highlights included strong growth in the communications business as well as in industrial, computers and semiconductor markets.

Chemical Analysis revenues were up 43% above one year ago. Orders were up 16% and revenues were up 8 percent on an organic basis. Continued strength in the petrochemical, food, environmental and forensics markets contributed to CAG’s growth. Life Sciences revenues grew 19% over last year. Orders grew 11 percent and revenues grew 7 percent on an organic basis. Good growth in pharma along with strong demand in academia and government markets, were highlights of the quarter. First-quarter ROIC was 21 percent. Agilent generated $120 million of cash from operations during a seasonally weak first quarter. Net cash, at the end of the first quarter and after paying off the $1.5 billion World Trade debt in December, was $554 million.