Bayer’s remorse

24 January 2020 By Ed Cropley, Aimee Donnellan Follow @edwardcropley

The German chemicals group may spend $10 billion compensating alleged cancer victims of its acquisition’s Roundup weed killer. That would be better than CEO Werner Baumann’s worst fears. But it barely makes his ill-starred $66 billion deal look any better.

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German seeds and pesticides maker Bayer is discussing a $10 billion out-of-court settlement with U.S. plaintiffs who say the company’s Roundup weed killer gave them cancer, Bloomberg said on Jan. 23.

Analysts have estimated that Bayer, which said in October that it was facing 42,700 U.S. plaintiffs, more than twice the tally in July, would manage to hammer out a settlement of between $8 billion and $12 billion.

A Bayer spokesman said mediation under court-assigned intermediary Ken Feinberg was continuing, with no certainty on an outcome or time frame.

Shares in Bayer were up 2.4% at 75.9 euros by 1415 GMT on Jan. 24.

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