All synergies should be achieved this year through the billion-euro takeover.
The pharmaceutical and agrochemical company Bayer continues to rely on the success of the heavily criticized billion-dollar takeover of the US seed company Monsanto. “We assume that we will achieve all the synergies from the merger by the end of 2021 – a year earlier than originally planned,” said Bayer CEO Werner Baumann to the “Handelsblatt” (Thursday).
“However, the agricultural sector has experienced significantly weaker market growth in recent years, from which we, as the leading company in this area, cannot decouple ourselves.” The environment is now improving. “The success of the takeover will be evident in the next few years,” promised Baumann.
Processing of legal problems
“Of course there were some disappointments, but we have also achieved a lot,” said the CEO. Bayer is still working on the processing of the legal problems that the Leverkusen-based company dealt with through the $ 63 billion takeover of Monsanto and which have already resulted in high costs.
For the past fiscal year, the group had reported a loss of 10.5 billion euros due to billions in provisions for the glyphosate legal disputes in the USA and high depreciation in the agricultural division.
New medium-term goals
On Wednesday, Bayer tried to encourage investors with new medium-term targets. Despite the overall positive march route, according to stockbrokers, a solution is finally needed in the US legal dispute over alleged cancer risks of the glyphosate weed killer Roundup. Bayer has recently made significant progress here.
At the beginning of February, the group reached an agreement with the other side on a crucial part of its billion-dollar glyphosate settlement – namely how to deal with future US lawsuits. The responsible judge Vince Chhabria still has to agree to this. A hearing before the judge, which was postponed from the end of March to mid-May, is now important.
