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Leverkusen (dpa) - Two years after a severe setback, Bayer boss Werner Baumann is once again answering questions from shareholders at the company's general meeting.
Due to the corona pandemic, the event will only take place online from 10 a.m., so shareholders cannot read the riot act on the executive floor at the lectern.
They had to send in their questions beforehand, which the Bayer Board of Management answered in front of the camera.
After that, written inquiries are possible during the general meeting.
In 2019, the shareholders refused to approve Baumann as the first incumbent CEO of a Dax group - the takeover of US rival Monsanto had turned out to be ballast that plunged the share price into the basement.
Two years later, the price has still not recovered. Last year, the Leverkusen-based company posted the highest loss in its company's history with minus 10.5 billion euros. The deep red numbers were mainly due to provisions for the US lawsuits for alleged cancer risks of glyphosate. "The once so proud Bayer company is now only a shadow of itself," said Ingo Speich from Bayer shareholder Deka Investment in the run-up to the Annual General Meeting. The purchase of Monsanto was a wrong decision that would cost Bayer dearly. "Monsanto did not make Bayer more crisis-proof, but plunged it deeper into the crisis."
Bayer boss Baumann's speech was published online at the end of last week.
According to the text of the speech, there was a positive start to the year, especially in the agricultural business.
In addition to agrochemicals, Bayer also has divisions for pharmaceuticals and non-prescription drugs (consumer health).
Investors should also be interested in how things went in the pharmaceutical division, which suffered from the Corona crisis last year.
Here you will have to wait until the quarterly figures are presented on May 12th.
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AGM speech by Baumann
HV portal from Bayer