FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Union Investment, one of Bayer’s shareholders, criticized on Sunday the group’s chairman’s lack of initiative, particularly on the planned split of the consumer healthcare division, German business weekly WirtschaftsWoche reported.
Bayer is under pressure from activist investor Bluebell Capital Partners, which wants the German pharmaceutical and agrochemical group to be dismantled, including the sale of the consumer healthcare division and later a spin-off of the pharmaceutical and agricultural activities.
Bayer Chairman Norbert Winkeljohann “seeks dialogue with investors, but he should have done more,” Markus Manns, portfolio manager at Union Investment, said in an interview with WirtschaftsWoche.
“It definitely would have been a topic for the supervisory board to help kick off the consumer healthcare division spinoff,” he added. According to Markus Manns, the presidents of Bayer’s competitors are more involved in creating shareholder value.
Asked, Norbert Winkeljohann did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A Bayer spokesman, for his part, simply declared: “In general, we are always open to a constructive dialogue with our shareholders”.
(Report Tom Sims; Claude Chendjou)
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