© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A bridge is adorned with the brand of a Bayer AG, a German pharmaceutical and chemical maker in Wuppertal, Germany August 9, 2019. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay
By Ludwig Burger
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Agriculture and prescription drugs firm Bayer (OTC:) reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings as a brief worth increase for its glyphosate-based weedkillers made up for a decline in gross sales of its stroke prevention tablet Xarelto.
The German firm mentioned in an announcement on Tuesday that third-quarter adjusted earnings earlier than curiosity, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 17.3% to 2.45 billion euros ($2.45 billion), above analysts’ common estimate of two.31 billion euros posted on the corporate’s web site.
Bayer, which acquired glyphosate merchandise as a part of its takeover of Monsanto (NYSE:), is benefiting from a roughly 2.5 occasions bounce in common glyphosate costs since early 2021 after hurricane Ida broken rival producers, Chief Government Werner Baumann informed journalists in a name.
However finance chief Wolfgang Nickl mentioned costs had already begun to drop through the third quarter. “We count on them to normalize additional within the fourth quarter,” he added.
Bayer mentioned its full-year outlook issued in August nonetheless stood, however added value inflation would proceed subsequent yr. Its shares fell 2.4%, erasing beneficial properties over the earlier two buying and selling periods as analysts voiced issues over the associated fee outlook.
Bayer has been hit by litigation prices over most cancers claims by principally particular person customers of glyphosate-based weedkillers, however demand for the merchandise from farmers, the crop science unit’s foremost buyer group, has not been affected.
A current string of 5 courtroom victories has inspired Bayer to be stricter on authorized settlements, which have value it billions thus far even after regulators declared the merchandise protected.
The corporate mentioned in August it was focusing on 2022 adjusted EBITDA of about 13 billion euros, primarily based on June 30 international trade charges, up from 11.2 billion in 2021.
The crop science division noticed adjusted EBITDA achieve 33.5% to 629 million euros, beating a market consensus of 589 million euros, as a powerful glyphosate enterprise greater than offset weaker corn and soy seed gross sales after U.S. farmers scaled again planting because of drought.
Bayer’s best-selling drug Xarelto noticed gross sales decline 6.2% to 1.11 billion euros within the quarter, barely beneath market estimates, after aggressive buying tenders in China weighed on costs and volumes there.
