Bayer boss Werner Baumann has to go – economy

When a Pursue announces shortly after 5 p.m. that the boss is being replaced, and the price of the share jumps up by six percent within a few minutes, then there is probably not much to interpret. The shareholders probably couldn’t wait for the CEO to finally resign. Finally going. Or, maybe better: going.

Actually, the contract of Bayer boss Werner Baumann, 60 years old, native of Krefeld, has been with the company for 35 years and has been on the board since 2010, runs until April 2024. On Wednesday afternoon, the supervisory board of the Leverkusen-based pharmaceutical and agrochemical group, its CEO already decided to be exchanged on June 1st. The 56-year-old American William Anderson, most recently head of the pharmaceuticals division of the Swiss Roche group, is to become the new boss – a surprise. And Bauman? Will then be retiring at the end of May. So a year earlier than his personal life plan envisaged.

It is not fair to say that this afternoon’s events came as a surprise. Influential Bayer investors have long been calling for Baumann to be quickly replaced by an external candidate. “When it comes to CEO succession, the sooner the better,” said fund manager Markus Manns of Union Investment. Maybe everything would have turned out differently if Baumann hadn’t made a very big mistake in 2018. Maybe: the mistake of his life.

$63 billion for a lot of problems

Paid $63 billion Bayer at the time for the takeover of the US agricultural chemicals group Monsanto. A strategic decision that was also pushed by the then Bayer Supervisory Board Chairman Werner Wenning. However, they not only bought the manufacturer of the very controversial weed killer glyphosate for a lot of money, but also brought lawsuits worth billions from glyphosate victims. People who had cancer and attributed this disease to the use of Monsanto products.

The share price of Bayer, once one of the most valuable companies in Germany, continued to fall. Most recently, Bayer brought it to just 58 billion euros on the stock exchange – that’s less than what was expected at the time Monsanto had put on the table. Anger grew as the stock plummeted and more lawsuits landed on the attorneys’ desks.

The hour of the activists

Then, in the past few months, came the hour of the so-called activist investors. Those shareholders who don’t even bother with well-intentioned strategy criticism and diplomatic statements. Those who immediately demand a change in the board of directors, spin-offs and – if necessary – the break-up of a corporation. At the beginning of the year, hedge fund manager Jeff Ubben joined the Leverkusen team with his investment company Inclusive Capital and was looking for like-minded people to form an anti-Baumann coalition. Bayer announced on Wednesday that the change was “the result of a comprehensive selection process that was initiated in the middle of last year”. middle of last year. There really is no question of a sudden change.