According to a media report, the investment company Bluebell Capital Partners has joined Bayer and is campaigning for the agricultural and pharmaceutical group to be broken up. The UK-based activist investor also wants to overhaul Bayer’s corporate governance, the agency reported Bloomberg on Tuesday, citing insiders. The fund asked Bayer to separate the Crop Science and Pharmaceutical divisions, it said. The argument is that this could offer shareholders upside potential of up to 70 percent. In addition, Bayer should consider a spin-off or an IPO of Consumer Health. The proportion of Bluebell is not known.
A spokesman for the company declined to comment on the report. Generally speaking, we are always ready for a constructive dialogue with shareholders, he said. The Californian investment company Inclusive Capital announced on Monday that it would be investing in Bayer. Bayer has always rejected recurring speculations about a split: these did not increase the value of the business. The Leverkusen group does not have to deal with activist investors for the first time. The hedge fund Elliott had built up a stake of around two percent in 2019 and put pressure on the company in the wake of the wave of lawsuits over the alleged carcinogenic effects of the weed killer glyphosate in the USA.
Reuters