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Bayer increases revenues in the quarter and reduces losses

Leverkusen's group set aside 700 million for the Monsanto lawsuit in Oregon

Bayer achieved substantial growth in the second quarter of 2022: the Group sales increased by 9.6 percent to 12.819 billion euros on a currency- and portfolio-adjusted basis. EBITDA before special items advanced by 30.0 percent to 3.349 billion euros. Positive currency effects benefited sales by 915 million euros (Q2 2021: minus 524 million euros) and EBITDA before special items by 300 million euros (Q2 2021: minus 153 million euros). EBIT came in at 169 million euros (Q2 2021: minus 2.281 billion euros) after net special charges of 2.111 billion euros (Q2 2021: 3.901 billion euros) that mainly comprised 1.322 billion euros in impairment losses on intangible assets at the Crop Science Division.

In the second quarter, net income amounted to minus 298 million euros (Q2 2021: minus 2.335 billion euros), while core earnings per share from continuing operations rose by 19.9 percent to 1.93 euros. 

“We delivered strong operational performance. In terms of sales, we posted significant gains at Crop Science and strong growth at Consumer Health, as well as a slight increase at Pharmaceuticals, too. And with EBITDA before special items, we even achieved growth of 30 percent,” said Werner Baumann, Chairman of the Board of Management. “In view of our good business performance and higher growth expectations, we have raised our full-year guidance,” he explained.

In the agricultural business (Crop Science), Bayer increased sales by 17.2 percent to 6.461 billion euros, driven by a substantial improvement in the market environment.

Bayer has taken an additional provision of 694 million euros in the second quarter mainly due to ongoing settlement negotiations with the State of Oregon. The settlement, when finalized, would resolve a pending environmental impairment case, involving legacy Monsanto PCB products, and result in the dismissal of the case. Given the unique challenges, trial procedures, and substantive law for this case in this Oregon venue, the company decided to pursue settlement, even though Monsanto voluntarily ceased production of PCBs in 1977 and never disposed of the chemical in this state. Bayer remains committed to defend future cases through the litigation process. Recently, a Delaware State Court dismissed all of the state’s claims in a similar PCB-related case alleging environmental impairments.

Monsanto has broad indemnity agreements with its former customers and the company will pursue its rights to recover costs associated with the PCB-related litigation. The company recently filed a complaint in the Circuit Court of St. Louis County for the State of Missouri to enforce its rights.

About the Outlook for 2022 Bayer remains optimistic for the remainder of the year. It has therefore raised its guidance for the Crop Science and Consumer Health divisions, and thus also for the Group as a whole. On a currency-adjusted basis, Bayer now expects to generate sales of 47 billion to 48 billion euros in 2022 (previously: approximately 46 billion euros). The company is now targeting an EBITDA margin before special items of around 26 to 27 percent (previously: around 26 percent) on a currency-adjusted basis. Based on the aforementioned sales figure, this would now correspond to EBITDA before special items of around 12.5 billion euros (previously: around 12.0 billion euros) on a currency-adjusted basis. 

Bayer has also prepared its guidance based on the closing exchange rates as of June 30, 2022, and the differences to the currency-adjusted targets above are as follows: the company now expects to generate sales of 50 billion to 51 billion euros.

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EFA News - European Food Agency
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