HOECHST RAISES PROFITS ON LOWER SALES

  Hoechst AG &lt;HFAG.F> said in a
  statement it increased its pretax profits in 1986 despite a
  fall in turnover due to lower foreign sales.
      The lower sales were due to the fall in the dollar and
  other currencies against the mark. Other factors were pressure
  on selling prices because of a sharp fall in the prices of
  crude oil and petrochemical raw materials and the sale of
  polystyrene business in the U.S. And Netherlands.
      World group pretax profit rose to 3.21 billion marks in
  1986 from 3.16 billion in 1985, with sales falling to 38.01
  billion from 42.72 billion.
      Within group turnover, foreign sales fell to 27.18 billion
  marks in 1986 from 31.92 billion in 1985, a drop of 14.9 pct.
      The statement made no mention of net profit figures.
  Hoechst will announce its dividend proposal on April 23.
      In the first quarter of this year sales were hit by the
  cold weather at the start of the year. If the dollar continues
  at present low levels, 1987 sales will again be below the
  previous year, although in volume terms they are unchanged from
  1986, Hoechst said.
      Sales of paints and dyes, fibres, sheeting and information
  technology all rose in 1986 but plant construction sales fell.
      Hoechst attributed its good results to the performance of
  the parent company, other units in West Germany, and to
  &lt;American Hoechst Corp>.
      Improved earnings in the U.S. Largely reflected the
  restructuring of styrene and polystyrene activities.
      Roussel Uclaf &lt;RUCF.PA> and most domestic non-consolidated
  partners did not perform as well as in 1985.
      Hoechst attributed the 12 pct rise in parent company pretax
  profits to 1.82 billion marks above all to a rise in earnings
  from interest and holdings in other companies, and a fall in
  extraordinary costs.
      The fall in raw material prices was not enough to
  compensate for the decline in turnover due to lower prices and
  currencies, Hoechst said.
      The bulk of the 2.53 billion marks investment in new
  projects, up from 294 mln marks in 1985, went on the capital
  increase of Hoechst Capital Corp in connection with the
  acquisition of &lt;Celanese Corp>.
      Celanese was merged with American Hoechst in February to
  form &lt;Hoechst Celanese Corp>.
  

