Berlin - German chemicals and pharmaceuticals concern Bayer Wednesday raised its forecast for sales over 2008, following an unexpectedly strong second quarter in which the Crop Science division performed strongly.

"The successful first half of 2008 has strengthened our confidence for the full year," company chairman Werner Wenning said. "We now plan to increase group sales by more than 5 per cent on a currency- and portfolio-adjusted basis."

The company had previously set 5 per cent as the target.

"We are particularly pleased at the strong performance of Bayer Crop Science and are again raising our full-year guidance for this subgroup," Wenning said.

Group operating profits on an EBITDA basis rose 5 per cent to 1.9 billion euros (3.0 billion dollars) on a 3.6-per-cent rise in sales to 8.5 billion euros.

Crop Science sales soared to 1.8 billion euros in the second quarter, up 15.5 per cent on the same quarter last year. The company put the rise at 23 per cent on an adjusted basis.

On this basis, Health Care sales rose 6.6 per cent and Material Science sales 5.3 per cent.

Bayer put group net profits for the quarter at 574 million euros, down from 660 million in the same quarter last year. Last year's figure was inflated by 244 million euros resulting largely from the sale of Wolff Walsrode. (dpa)