Operationally and strategically successful in 2021 / Dividend of 2.00 euros per share proposed / Very successful start to 2022
Leverkusen, April 29, 2022 – The Bayer Group was operationally and strategically successful in 2021. “We achieved a lot, and there is a lot of good news to report as regards our operational performance, innovation power and sustainability. Bayer is on the right track,” said Werner Baumann, Chairman of the Board of Management, at the company’s virtual Annual Stockholders’ Meeting in Leverkusen on Friday. Bayer has also got off to a very successful start to 2022, he added. “In the agriculture business in particular, we see a much more positive market environment than in previous years. We believe the strategic alignment of our company has proven to be the right one. That is also true when it comes to our societal relevance. People will be able to count on Bayer to support the global food supply. We are guided by our vision ‘Health for all, hunger for none.’ And we have still been able to successfully manage our business under these difficult conditions as well,” Bayer’s CEO reported in reference to the war in Ukraine.
Bayer had originally announced that 2021 would be a year of transition, but the company exceeded the Group forecast even after raising it twice. Sales advanced to 44.1 billion euros. EBITDA before special items fell by 2.5 percent to 11.2 billion euros. Bayer was able to largely offset an increase in the cost of goods sold – partly inflation-related – as well as significant currency headwinds. Core earnings per share from continuing operations of the Group rose by 1.9 percent to 6.51 euros. As Bayer is maintaining its dividend policy of distributing between 30 and 40 percent of core earnings per share, the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board have proposed to the Annual Stockholders’ Meeting that a dividend of 2.00 euros per share be paid for fiscal 2021.
Baumann joined Supervisory Board Chairman Norbert Winkeljohann in thanking the company’s employees around the world. “They are the ones who achieved and enabled all of this. They did so with the tremendous passion and motivation that make our Team Bayer what it is.” However, Baumann was not satisfied with the performance of Bayer’s share price in 2021. “Nonetheless, the situation has improved in recent months. Since the beginning of the year, the price of our shares has increased more than 30 percent! That is by far the best performance among DAX and EuroStoxx 50 companies during this period!”
