UPDATE 1-Zentiva 9-month profit beats forecast, sales soar

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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 rose to 1.55 billion crowns ($69.5 million), beating the average forecast in a Reuters poll of analysts for an unchanged result from the 1.49 billion in January-September 2005.

Zentiva, one of central Europe's biggest pharmaceuticals firms, halted a profit slide it suffered earlier this year thanks to a sales recovery in its domestic market and robust growth in Romania, Poland, Russia and other export markets in the third quarter.

Revenue jumped 19 percent to 9.87 billion crowns, reflecting in part a boost from last year's acquisition of Romanian drugmaker Sicomed <SCDB.BX> but falling short of the 9.93 billion forecast.

But financial costs related to debt, raised to fund the Sicomed takeover, and an ongoing marketing campaign to back up the launch of new products ate into revenue and hampered a sharper improvement in profitability.

Zentiva shares fell 0.9 percent to 1,238 crowns by 1110 GMT, outperforming a 1.7 percent drop in the Prague bourse's blue-chip PX index <.PX>.

France's Sanofi-Aventis <SASY.PA> has been Zentiva's largest shareholder with a 24.9 percent stake.

Operating profit, or earnings before tax and interest (EBIT), rose 12.5 percent to 2.29 billion crowns.

Diluted earnings per share rose to $1.78 from $1.65 a year ago. The company reiterated its net profit forecast for the whole of this year at 2.2 billion crowns.

"The results ... show that the geographical expansion that we have pushed ahead with over the last two to three years has been crucial to our success," Zentiva Chairman and Chief Executive Jiri Michal said in an earnings statement.

"I am confident that 2006 will turn out to be a record year for Zentiva both in terms of sales and earnings," he added.

((Reporting by Marek Petrus

Editing by Jane Baird

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Keywords: HEALTH CZECH ZENTIVA