As Bayer AG management digs in against a growing shareholder rebellion over the acquisition of Monsanto Co, attention is to shift from the German company’s headquarters back to US courts.
That is where the German pharmaceutical and chemicals giant faces 13,400 lawsuits claiming that Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller causes cancer.
Even as it fights the cases, the company’s shareholders last week handed chief executive officer Werner Baumann an unprecedented rebuke.
Bayer shares yesterday rose 2.3 percent to 60.12 euros in early Frankfurt trading. Including the effect of Bayer’s dividend payment, which took effect yesterday, the stock fell 2.2 percent.
At a fractious, 13-hour gathering in Bonn on Friday last week, more than 55 percent of shareholders voted against absolving Baumann and other managers of responsibility for their actions in the US$63 billion takeover last year.
Bayer’s board circled the wagons afterward, saying that it maintained full confidence in Baumann.
Several top investors consider the move a sign that Bayer is unwilling to address shareholder concerns, people familiar with the situation said.
The vote was non-binding, but other German CEOs have lost their jobs even after securing more support than Baumann.
However, several large investors said that they would prefer that Baumann remain in place because a change to Bayer’s management board could further delay a resolution to the US litigation and any strategic review.
Investors want Bayer to consider an overhaul of the board, take a more forthcoming approach in dealing with the US litigation and conduct a sweeping review — including a potential breakup of the conglomerate into crop science and pharmaceutical companies, the people familiar with the situation said.
A Bayer representative declined to comment on investors’ call for changes.
Management’s fate might lie in the hands of US courts, where Bayer has lost two Roundup cases and lawsuits are proliferating through multiple channels.
In one set of proceedings, a US federal judge this month ordered Bayer to pursue mediation, asking the company to try to settle legal challenges that have wiped more than 35 billion euros (US$39.06 billion) off the market value.
A state court in California is hearing a case brought by a couple in their 70s who both have cancer. The jury is expected to rule as soon as next month.
Bayer denies that Roundup causes cancer and the company has been holding out hope for a court win that would give Baumann some breathing space as the company hones its legal response to the swelling wave of litigation.
However, a third loss could force the company to accelerate talks on a global settlement, which analysts have said could top US$5 billion.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the