FRANKFURT, Jan 28 (Reuters) – Bayer (BAYGn.DE) investor Deka has referred to as for CEO Werner Baumann to get replaced forward of his scheduled departure, including to mounting stress on the German drugmaker.
“Bayer wants a brand new strategic positioning, which can't be credibly completed underneath Werner Baumann,” Ingo Speich, head of sustainability and company governance at Deka, instructed the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS) newspaper in remarks printed on Saturday.
The mutual funds agency is amongst Bayer's 20 largest shareholders.
“There's a window of alternative for Chairman Norbert Winkeljohann to behave earlier than the annual common assembly on the finish of April. He has to grab that chance, in any other case the stress on him will enhance as nicely,” Speich added.
He mentioned a successor must come from exterior the corporate.
“Usually talking we're all the time open to a constructive dialogue with our stakeholders,” a Bayer spokesperson mentioned, declining to remark particularly on the interview.
Regardless of latest enhancements within the firm's agriculture enterprise and drug improvement prospects, Bayer shares have been weighed down by litigation over glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup and over environmental air pollution associated to chemical substances generally known as PCBs.
The authorized claims are legacy points from its takeover of Monsanto for greater than $60 billion in 2018.
Baumann, who engineered the troubled Monsanto deal, was given a brand new contract in 2020 that runs till 2024 and mentioned on the time he would go away the corporate when that time period expires.
Per week in the past mutual funds group Union Funding criticised Bayer's chair for an absence of engagement, reminiscent of exploring a spin-off of the corporate's client well being division.
Bayer can also be dealing with calls for from activist investor Bluebell Capital Companions to interrupt up the corporate, together with promoting off its client well being unit and later a separation of its prescribed drugs and agricultural companies.
One other activist funding fund, hedge fund veteran Jeffrey Ubben's Inclusive Capital Companions, mentioned this month it had additionally acquired a stake in Bayer.
Reporting by Ludwig Burger; modifying by Jason Neely
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