Chemicals Bayer must set aside billions for glyphosate lawsuits
The late effects of the Monsanto takeover for Bayer continue unabated. The pharmaceutical and agrochemical company is once again having to set aside a lot of money due to expensive lawsuits in the USA relating to the weedkiller glyphosate.
12.11.2025, 12:17
SDA
Increased provisions for legal disputes over glyphosate and the environmental chemical PCB are burdening the third quarter with almost one billion euros, as Bayer announced on Wednesday. As a result, the special charges on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) will increase to between EUR 3.5 billion and EUR 4.0 billion in 2025. Previously, Bayer had planned between 2.5 billion and 3.5 billion.
Bayer CEO Bill Anderson confirmed the outlook for operating profit, also adjusted for these special items, when presenting the figures for the third quarter. The Group's operating profit exceeded analysts' expectations thanks to a surprisingly good performance by the Agriculture segment.
However, due to expensive legal risks, the DAX-listed company made a loss of just under one billion euros in the third quarter. This was on a turnover of around 9.7 billion euros, which was a minus of 3.1 percent. Excluding negative exchange rate and portfolio effects, there was a small increase in turnover.
Expensive consequences of the Monsanto takeover
With regard to the legal disputes in the USA, Anderson sees progress and is confident that these will be significantly reduced by the end of 2026. He justified the higher provisions with settlement agreements and a moderate increase in the number of glyphosate lawsuits filed.
As of October 15, Bayer reported 197,000 filed claims, of which around 132,000 were settled or did not meet the settlement criteria. That is 5,000 more claims than in the summer.
Bayer brought the expensive glyphosate lawsuits into the company with the takeover of the US agricultural company Monsanto in 2018, which cost more than 60 billion dollars. Bayer then came under heavy pressure on the stock market.
Thousands of jobs cut
Around two years ago, CEO Anderson initiated job cuts that are still ongoing. "So far, we have cut around 13,500 jobs worldwide," said the manager. At the end of September, Bayer said it had around 88,500 full-time positions worldwide.
The job cuts are due to new work structures with which the company has reduced hierarchies. Employees are to network more independently within the Group, act entrepreneurially and make their own decisions - the working model is called "Dynamic Shared Ownership" (DSO).
When asked when the DSO job cuts would be completed, Anderson said that there was no specific target for job cuts. The aim is to build the organization around customers, products and scientific findings.
