Drug company GlaxoSmithKline (LON:GSK) on Wednesday reported lower annual earnings but said it was on track to save £3bn by the end of 2017.
Glaxo, which has become the target of takeover speculation over its lacklustre share price, said core earnings per share fell by 15% at constant exchange rates (CER) in the 12 months to December 31 versus a year ago.
The group said the fall was, however, ahead of the financial guidance that it gave in May. It also said it expected 2016 core earnings per share percentage CER growth to reach double digits.
Glaxo also pointed to a 6% rise in group sales to £24bn and forecasted that sales of new products would hit its target of £6bn in annual revenues up to two years earlier than previously stated, in 2018 rather than 2020.
And it confirmed a 2015 ordinary dividend of 80p per share and special payout of 20p per share, with the special dividend to be paid alongside the fourth-quarter ordinary dividend in April.
It said it continued to expect an 80p full-year dividend for 2016 and 2017.
Along with rivals, Glaxo has been under pressure to develop new drugs to replace older treatments that are facing copy-cat competition as their patents expire.
Glaxo said it believed there were significant opportunities for its new R&D portfolio of about 40 assets, of which some 80% have the potential to be first-in-class.
It also said it had saved £1bn in 2015 at a cost of £1.9bn and was on track to save £3bn by the end of 2017.
Chief executive Andrew Witty said: "In 2015, we made substantial progress to accelerate new product sales growth, integrate new businesses in vaccines and consumer healthcare and restructure our global pharmaceuticals business.
"This progress means the group is well positioned to return to core earnings growth in 2016."
Shares in the company fell immediately after the results but climbed 5p to 1431p later.
Earlier this week, rumours resurfaced about a possible break-up of GlaxoSmithKline, carried out either by the company itself or one or more bidders.
There was vague market talk that the likes of Reckitt Benckiser (LON:RB.), Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) or Unilever (LON:ULVR) could snap up the company for its consumer health business and hive off the drug side to a more appropriate owner such as Switzerland's Roche.
In June last year, when similar speculation was doing the rounds, one market source said the relatively low level of its shares at the time - about 1351p - made it vulnerable.
Returning to the results, Glaxo reported a loss attributable to shareholders of £354mln in the quarter to December 31, compared with a £1bn profit a year earlier. Fourth quarter revenue rose to £6.3bn from £6.2bn.
Core net profit, which excludes some one-off items, fell 34% to £874mln. Revenue matched analysts' expectations but the profit figure fell short of the £903mln forecast.
Glaxo blamed the profit fall on its shift to a higher-volume, lower-margin business following its $20bn asset-swap deal with Novartis last year, when Glaxo exchanged its cancer drugs for the Swiss company's vaccine arm.
The pair also created a consumer healthcare joint venture comprising products such as Panadol headache tablets and toothpaste.