Zentiva 9-month profit beats forecast, sales soar

PRAGUE, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Czech drug maker Zentiva <ZNTVsp.PR> posted a 4 percent rise in nine-month net profits on Monday, as soaring sales in export markets helped offset higher marketing and debt-financing costs.

Net profit at the company, one of central Europe's biggest pharmaceuticals firms, beat the average forecast given in a Reuters poll of analysts of an unchanged result from from the 1.49 billion crowns made in January-September 2005.

Revenue jumped 19 percent to 9.87 billion crowns, falling just short of the 9.93-billion-crown forecast but reflecting a one-off boost from last year's acquisition of Romanian drugs maker Sicomed <SCDB.BX>.

France's Sanofi-Aventis <SASY.PA> is Zentiva's largest shareholder with a 24.9 percent stake. ((Reporting by Marek Petrus, editing by Greg Mahlich;

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Keywords: HEALTH CZECH ZENTIVA