	hoechst raises profits on lower sales hoechst ag hfag f said in a statement it increased its pretax profits in 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 billion marks in from billion in with sales falling to billion from billion within group turnover foreign sales fell to billion marks in from billion in a drop of pct the statement made no mention of net profit figures hoechst will announce its dividend proposal on april 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 sales will again be below the previous year although in volume terms they are unchanged from hoechst said sales of paints and dyes fibres sheeting and information technology all rose in but plant construction sales fell hoechst attributed its good results to the performance of the parent company other units in west germany and to american hoechst corp improved ings in the u s largely reflected the restructuring of styrene and polystyrene activities roussel uclaf rucf pa and most domestic non consolidated partners did not perform as well as in hoechst attributed the pct rise in parent company pretax profits to billion marks above all to a rise in ings 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 billion marks investment in new projects up from mln marks in went on the capital increase of hoechst capital corp in connection with the acquisition of celanese corp celanese was merged with american hoechst in february to form hoechst celanese corp reuter 
