Feb 16, 2022 at 12:03 p.m

Geneva/Fort Worth – The US-Swiss group Alcon, which specializes in eye treatments and is listed on the Swiss stock exchange, continued to recover from the corona crisis in the final quarter of last year. Alcon will continue to grow in the new year.

In the months of October through December, sales advanced 11 percent to $2.13 billion, Alcon said late Tuesday night. Profitability has also improved significantly: the operating margin in the core business increased by 1.4 percentage points to 16.3 percent.

In 2021 as a whole, sales of the preferred Novartis subsidiary even grew by a good fifth to $8.22 billion. That is also more than the around 7.4 billion from 2019, when Corona was not yet an issue of war. Alcon’s sales slightly exceeded analysts’ expectations.

growth in surgery
During the corona crisis, the eye surgery business in particular felt the effects of the measures to contain the pandemic, and practices and operating rooms were closed for weeks. With the opening of the hospitals, however, things are looking up again. Sales in eye surgery advanced by 27 percent. The eye care business, for example with eye drops, which was less affected by the crisis, grew by 15 percent.

The bottom line is that Alcon posted a profit of $376 million last year after a deep red of -$531 million the year before. The group will pay the shareholders a dividend of 20 centimes. That’s twice as much as last year.

Alcon started the new year with a lot of momentum, also thanks to new products, CEO David Endicott is quoted as saying in the announcement. He expects revenue to continue to grow into the $8.7 billion to $8.9 billion range and core operating margin to 18 percent to 19 percent in 2022. Alcon management will provide additional earnings and prospects information in a conference call on Wednesday. (awp/mc/pg)