By Ludwig Burger
FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Investor concerns that Bayer’s earnings were inflated by soccer player transfer fees rather than supported by its core healthcare and agriculture businesses helped send its shares plummeting nearly 5% to a one-month low on Wednesday.
The German maker of pharmaceuticals and crop protection products reported in unscheduled preliminary results last week that second-quarter operating income, adjusted for some items, came in at a better-than-expected 2.1 billion euros ($2.43 billion).
In a more detailed disclosure on Wednesday, however, it said those results included higher revenue from its German Bundesliga team Bayer Leverkusen resulting from player transfers.
Bayer shares were down 4.7% at 0958 GMT.
Fresh details in Wednesday’s disclosure indicating that Bayer’s performance was also more the result of established blood thinner Xarelto than newer drugs with longer patent protection contributed to the stock selloff as well.
“The detail of the beat being somewhat related to Xarelto and the sale of a footballer could be disappointing to some,” JPMorgan analysts said in a note.
British media reported in June that Premier League champions Liverpool had agreed a fee of 136.3 million euros to sign Bayer Leverkusen attacking midfielder Florian Wirtz.
Bayer’s finance chief Wolfgang Nickl, however, would not provide details on the transfer earnings on Wednesday.
“If we have these transfers, we need to compare the book value with the prices that we get, and that can lead to an extraordinary result on several players, and that was just recorded last quarter,” he said during a call with journalists.
JOB CUTS, ROUNDUP PROVISIONS
Bayer also said it has now cut around 12,000 full-time positions since the start of a restructuring programme aimed at speeding up decision-making and reducing managerial and administrative positions.
A previous tally for jobs slashed in 2024 was at 7,000.
The total number of global employees at the end of June stood at close to 90,000 when counted in full-time equivalents, according to its quarterly report.
Bayer, which is burdened by U.S. lawsuits claiming its Roundup weedkiller causes cancer, has said it is holding off on breaking up the diversified group even as some investors call for a sale of the consumer health unit or separate stock market listing for its crop science division.It reiterated that it would have to stop U.S. production of key Roundup ingredient glyphosate unless lawmakers, courts or regulators help it further stave off the costly litigation.
Bayer said last week it had added 1.2 billion euros to its provisions for the Roundup litigation.
Total Roundup litigation provisions totalled $7.4 billion, or 6.3 billion euros, it said on Wednesday.
($1 = 0.8636 euros)
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Miranda Murray and Joe Bavier)
