Bayer's SE Asian sales up 33%

Bayer's SE Asian sales up 33%

SINGAPORE (AP): German company Bayer announced on Friday that its sales in Southeast Asia in 2000 jumped by 33 percent from a year earlier to 750 million euro (US$660 million).

The company's figures were boosted by big increases in sales of polymers, pharmaceuticals and pesticides, Bayer said in a statement.

Sales of polymers, an ingredient used in making plastics, rose by almost 50 percent from 1999 while pharmaceutical sales were up by 34 percent, the statement said.

A hike in sales of the household insecticide Baygon helped the company's sales figures in Indonesia, the statement said.

In Singapore, Bayer's sales grew by 50 percent in 2000 from 1999.

The company's sales growth rate in the Philippines rose only 20 percent due to a decrease in demand for agricultural products, Bayer said.