EARNINGS POLL-Zentiva 9-mth net profit seen flat year-on-year

    PRAGUE, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Czech drug maker Zentiva 
<ZNTVsp.PR> is expected to post flat nine-month net profit 
versus last year's level, as soaring sales help offset higher 
marketing and debt-financing costs, a Reuters poll showed. 
    Eight analysts forecast that the company, one of central 
Europe's key pharmaceuticals firms, would post a net profit of 
1.49 billion crowns ($66 million) on average, unchanged from 
January-September 2005. 
    Revenue was seen jumping 20 percent to 9.93 billion crowns, 
partly reflecting a one-off boost from last year's acquisition 
of Romanian drugs maker Sicomed <SCDB.BX>. Zentiva has booked 
about 17-18 percent of all revenues in Romania. 
    The results are due out at 1100 GMT on Oct. 30. 
    Analysts expected Zentiva to have halted the profit slide it 
suffered earlier this year, thanks to a sales recovery in its 
domestic market and robust growth in Poland, Russia and other 
export markets in the third quarter. 
    "Overall, our projections suggest a very strong third 
quarter," said Milan Vanicek, equity analyst at Atlantik FT. 
    But financial costs related to debt raised to fund the 
Sicomed takeover, and the company's ongoing marketing campaign 
to back up the launch of new products are likely to have eaten 
into revenue, denting profitability, analysts said. 
    "The gradual improvement of the Czech market and further 
growth in export markets is already priced in Zentiva's share 
price," said Lukas Dufek, analyst at Komercni Banka in Prague. 
    Zentiva's shares have risen 19 percent over the past three 
months to Wednesday's closing price of 1,279 crowns, nearing an 
all-time high of 1,339 crowns and beating a 4 percent drop in 
the DJ Stoxx health sector index <.SXDE> over the same period. 
    France's Sanofi-Aventis <SASY.PA> has been Zentiva's largest 
shareholder since March, when it bought a 24.9 percent stake for 
430 million euros ($541.2 million). 
    Following is a breakdown of analysts' forecasts for 
Zentiva's nine-month results. 
 
 Figures in CZK bln     Average   Median    9M/05       Range 
 SALES                  9.93      9.93      8.29      9.52-10.30 
 CORE PROFIT (EBITDA)   2.91      2.90      2.50      2.83- 3.05 
 OPER.PROFIT (EBIT)     2.18      2.18      2.04      2.12- 2.25 
 NET PROFIT             1.49      1.50      1.49      1.43- 1.53 
 
    The following equity houses took part in the poll: Atlantik 
FT, BH Securities, Cyrrus, Erste Bank, Komercni Banka, 
KBC/Patria Finance, UBS and WOOD & Company. 
    All eight analysts provided forecasts for sales, EBIT and 
net profit, but only six of them gave EBITDA estimates. 
 
 ((Reporting by Jan Korselt; Writing by Marek Petrus; Editing by 
Richard Barley; Reuters Messaging: 
rm://marek.petrus.reuters.com@reuters.net; e-mail: 
prague.newsroom@reuters.com or marek.petrus@reuters.com; Tel: 
+420 224 190 477)) 
 ($1=22.53 Czech Crown) 
 ($1=.7945 Euro) 
  Keywords: HEALTH CZECH ZENTIVA