Bayer seeks to replace CEO Baumann in shareholder ouster

Published: Sep 14, 2022

By Alex Keown

BioSpace

Bayer CEO Werner Baumann may be on the way out. For the past several years, Baumann has been in the sights of angry shareholders but has evaded an ouster. That soon may be over. 

The company supervisory board initiated a search for Baumann’s replacement when his current contract expires in 2024, Reuters reported Tuesday. The company will look for internal and external candidates to replace Baumann and present the candidate at the next shareholder meeting in April 2023, according to the report.

The decision to find a replacement two years before his contract expires could be an incentive for the CEO to step down prior to the end of his contract and hand over the reins to a successor, Bloomberg reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.

A Bayer spokesperson declined to comment to BioSpace Wednesday, saying that the company wasn’t speculating on the rumors of Baumann’s departure.

The spokesperson pointed to the company’s unanimous 2020 decision to extend Baumann’s contract to 2024, where the supervisory board said the members were convinced Baumann “is the right leader” to advance its transformation. Prior to that extension, Baumann’s contract had been set to expire in 2021.

Baumann has been embattled by detractors for the past several years following the German pharma company’s $63 billion acquisition of St. Louis-based Monsanto.

Following the purchase of the agricultural giant, Bayer faced many lawsuits over claims that Monsanto’s weed killer product Roundup caused cancer following prolonged use.

The company’s stock has suffered due to write-downs and litigation costs. As a result of those lawsuits, Bayer has had to sell off assets from its broad portfolio to cover the damages, including most of its stake in Elanco Animal Health for $1.6 billion. Bayer owned approximately 15.5% of Elanco.

Earlier this year, company stakeholders sought to oust Baumann, unhappy about the ongoing operating performance of the company. As BioSpace previously reported, both Singapore-based Temask Holdings and Alatus Capital, two company stakeholders, raised a call for new leadership at the century-old pharmaceutical company. At the time, Alatus said since Baumann took over the company in 2016, Bayer’s share price has declined by 48%.

That wasn’t the first leadership challenge for Baumann.

In 2019, he lost a vote of no confidence from shareholders led by proxy advisers Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services, who were angered over declining stock value following the Monsanto deal. Despite the vote, Baumann remained in his role.

Source: BioSpace