Chemicals company DSM booked net profit of €507m in 2010, almost 50% up on 2009. Sales rose 22% to over €89bn.

The group’s Nutrition division performed particularly well but the pharmaceuticals arm needs improvement, the company said in a statement. DSM also increased its dividend by 8%.
‘The year 2010 was the last in a period of transformation for DSM to become a focused Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company,’ said CEO Feike Sijbesma.
‘We successfully completed our Vision 2010 strategy, including divesting the remaining non-core assets within the promised timescale… and have started to build additional strong growth platforms for the next phase of our strategy.’