BAYN Bayer AG

   By Mauro Orru 
 

Bayer Chief Executive Bill Anderson said he is looking at options to overhaul the company's structure and remove multiple layers of management in a move that will result in significant job cuts, but ruled out splitting the group into three businesses.

Anderson, who took the helm of the German pharmaceutical and agricultural conglomerate from Werner Baumann in June, said he had engaged a team of advisors to look at various structural options, including the separation of either its crop science or consumer health divisions.

Bayer is one of few remaining groups housing pharmaceutical and consumer-health assets under the same roof. Last month, French drug giant Sanofi set out plans to spin off its consumer-health business, the latest company to hive off a division selling over-the-counter medicines and other retail products to focus on more commercially lucrative but scientifically riskier prescription drugs following similar moves by Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and GSK.

"We are redesigning Bayer to focus only on what's essential for our mission-- and getting rid of everything else," Anderson said. "We have also taken some options out of consideration. For example, we considered simultaneously splitting the company into three businesses. We're ruling that option out. A three-way split would require a two-step process."

Shareholders such as Bluebell Capital Partners had been calling for Bayer to split into three businesses--crop science, consumer health and pharmaceuticals--saying the divisions had nothing to do with each other.

Write to Mauro Orru at mauro.orru@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 08, 2023 02:26 ET (07:26 GMT)

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