Tuesday – November 3, 2020
Leverkusen, November 3, 2020 – Bayer has confirmed its targets for full-year 2020 following a challenging third quarter due to seasonal factors. “Despite the weak quarter and the substantial impact of the pandemic, our currency- and portfolio-adjusted sales and core earnings per share in the first nine months of the year were level with the prior-year period thanks to stringent cost management and the acceleration of our structural measures. We can therefore confirm our currency-adjusted Group outlook for 2020,” said Werner Baumann, Chairman of the Board of Management, on Tuesday during a conference call. Summarizing the company’s business performance, Chief Financial Officer Wolfgang Nickl said: “We saw a challenging quarter in our agricultural business, a recovery in our pharmaceuticals business and strong growth at Consumer Health.” Employee safety during the pandemic remains a top priority for Bayer. The company has implemented a wide range of protective measures to ensure that it can continue to provide patients, farmers and consumers with a reliable supply of products, especially life-saving medicines.
“The impact of the pandemic is placing additional strain on our Crop Science Division. We are also facing negative currency effects, such as the massive depreciation of the Brazilian real, which is weighing heavily on business in the world’s second-largest agricultural market,” said Nickl. In view of the headwinds in the agriculture business, the company has taken non-cash impairment charges for the division, as announced on September 30.
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