The German chemical and pharmaceutical company Bayer plunged 4.6 billion euros into the red in the third quarter, mainly due to difficulties in the agrochemicals division. Bayer announced this on Wednesday. The company’s Belgian headquarters are located in Diegem, Flemish Brabant. Bayer also has a branch in the port of Antwerp. Executive jobs will disappear.
The billion-dollar loss is mainly the result of new impairments in the agrochemicals division (‘Crop Science’), amounting to more than 4 billion euros. In the third quarter of 2022, Bayer had recorded a net profit of 546 million euros.
Turnover fell by more than 8 percent to 10.3 billion euros. Bayer refers, among other things, to falling prices for glyphosate-based herbicides and to exchange rate effects. Both turnover and profit were below analyst expectations.
“We are not satisfied with the performance this year,” said Bill Anderson, who has led Bayer since June. The CEO wants to reveal his plans for the future company structure in March, but is already announcing that “several layers of management and coordination” will disappear. That will lead to a “significant reduction in workforce”. As for the structure itself, there are several options on the table: from keeping the current three divisions in one company to spinning off ‘Crop Science’ or ‘Consumer Health’. A split into three different companies (including ‘Pharmaceuticals’) has already been ruled out.
Bayer expects little improvement in 2024, with “weak growth prospects and continued challenges to profitability”.
Tags: Chemical pharmaceutical company Bayer suffers billions losses
