Bayer Net Loss Widens on Weedkiller Litigation Charges — 2nd Update

By Adria Calatayud

Bayer reported a steeper net loss for the fourth quarter on litigation charges, as the conglomerate works to resolve yearslong legal battles over its Roundup weedkiller.

The chief executive of the German agriculture and pharmaceutical company, Bill Anderson, has pledged to significantly contain litigation risk by the end of this year as part of his efforts to regain investors' trust.

Last month, the company proposed a nationwide settlement in the U.S., including payments of up to $7.25 billion spread over the next two decades but frontloaded to 2026, in a bid to put an end to the litigation uncertainty that plagued it for years.

Bayer said Wednesday that litigation charges widened its fourth-quarter net loss to 3.76 billion euros ($4.37 billion) from a loss of 335 million euros for the year-earlier period. This included a hit of 3.55 billion euros from special items that mainly resulted from litigation-related expenses.

The company also said litigation payouts would lead it to bleed between 1.5 billion and 2.5 billion euros in cash this year, and to increase its year-end net debt to a range of 32 billion to 33 billion euros after two straight years of declines that reduced it to 29.84 billion euros as of Dec. 31.

Bayer is seeking to address the legal claims as it pursues a turnaround of its agricultural and pharma business and continues to implement a restructuring of its operations to reduce management layers that has shrunk its workforce by the thousands. It ended 2025 with some 88,100 employees, about 4,700 fewer than it had a year before.

"We've made major gains across the company, but that work is not yet complete," Anderson said in a call with reporters.

Excluding special items, Bayer's quarterly earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization dropped 16% to 1.97 billion euros, with declines across the group's agriculture, pharma and consumer-health divisions.

Analysts polled by Vara Research had forecast Ebitda before special items at 1.92 billion euros.

Bayer said profitability in its agricultural business was hurt by regulatory headwinds, costs linked to its restructuring actions and the absence of proceeds from sales of noncore assets that lifted its prior-year results. The company is looking to improve the division's profitability and recently said it would streamline the unit's operations, discontinue dozens of products and outsource production of some ingredients.

At its pharma business, Bayer said the adjusted earnings decline reflected the costs of ramping up sales of recently launched medicines.

Bayer's pharma business has been hit in recent quarters by the loss of patent protection of blood thinner Xarelto and eye medicine Eylea. The company aims to make up for the shortfall through fast sales growth of its Kerendia drug for kidney disease, Nubeqa for prostate cancer and Lynkuet for menopause symptoms.

Fourth-quarter sales fell 2.5% to 11.44 billion euros. Analysts had forecast sales at 11.31 billion euros.

Bayer reported a sales increase of 2.9% when adjusting for portfolio and currency changes, with growth in the pharma and agricultural businesses.

For 2026, the company forecast broadly stable sales and earnings when adjusting for currency movements. It projected full-year sales of 45 billion to 47 billion euros and an Ebitda before special items of 9.6 billion to 10.1 billion euros excluding currency movements.

Bayer executives said that higher earnings at its agricultural and consumer divisions would be offset by weaker results in pharma due to increased investments, and ruled out a material impact on the business or its supply chain from the conflict in the Middle East.

Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 04, 2026 06:06 ET (11:06 GMT)