Bayer CEO Says Breakup Wouldn’t Fix All of the Company’s Ills
BERLIN—Bayer Chief Executive Bill Anderson said the company would bounce back quickly from a recent spate of bad news, and warned that a breakup of the pharmaceutical and agricultural company was no universal cure for its ailments. A stream of negative news has rekindled calls from investors for Bayer to unlock value by spinning off its units into separate businesses. But in an interview with The Wall Street Journal this week, Anderson said the company couldn’t be distracted from the tough restructuring to fix the businesses.
“If we don’t have the most agile and responsive approach to product development, customer proximity and how we run our businesses, breaking [the company] into pieces isn’t going to solve things," he said. “No structural options are going to make up for lack of great execution." Over the past week, the German company canceled a clinical trial for a drug it had hoped would underpin future profit. Bayer, whose products include aspirin and the Roundup weedkiller, was also ordered by a Missouri court to pay $1.56 billion to four plaintiffs who claimed Roundup caused their cancer—a decision the company is appealing.
The court decision reminded investors that Bayer still faced unquantifiable liabilities stemming from its 2018 acquisition of Monsanto. And the abandoned clinical trial dashed hopes Bayer had found a successor to lucrative drugs whose patents are expiring soon. The combined news sent Bayer shares tumbling on Monday.
By the end of the week, Bayer’s market capitalization fell 8.7 billion euros, equivalent to $9.5 billion, to €32 billion, lower than the company’s net debt of €38.7 billion at the end of third quarter. Bayer shares have lost 21% of their value since last Friday’s close. The company
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