Bayer is to abandon its traditional three-pillar business model and focus on healthcare and crop science, by float its material sciences division.
The decision to float the latter on the stock market as a separate company follows years of speculation and comes at a time when material sciences continues to underperform. The spin-off will help Bayer “position itself as a world-leading company in the field of human, animal and plant health”, the German company said.
Bayer said management decided to go down the spin-off path on September 2 and its supervisory board will discuss the plans at its meeting today (September 18). Further information will be published when the latter has reached its decision.
The Leverkusen-headquartered firm has seen its healthcare operations blossom of late and earlier this year stated that the anticoagulant Xarelto (rivaroxaban, the eye drug Eylea (aflibercept) and the new cancer treatments Xofigo (radium 223) and Stivarga (regorafenib), plus the pulmonary hypertension treatment Adempas (riociguat), will have peak sales of at least 7.5 billion euros. Previously, the estimate was 5.5 billion euros.
