Bayer: German investors are suing for price losses in the glyphosate affair

Enlarge image

Logo of the Bayer Group (archive photo): The company rejects the investors' allegations.

Photo:

Christoph Hardt / imago images / Future Image

With the takeover of long-standing glyphosate manufacturer Monsanto, the Bayer Group inherited billions in lawsuits in US courts due to possible disguised health risks. Bayer is now also coming under legal pressure in Germany. As the magazine "Wirtschaftswoche" reports, around 320 lawsuits have been filed against the company with the Cologne Regional Court. The paper relied on information from the Baden-Württemberg law firm Tilp, which is responsible for the plaintiffs.

So far, Bayer has been confronted with claims for damages from people in the USA in particular who attribute cancer to contact with the glyphosate-containing preparation from Bayer's US subsidiary Monsanto.

According to "Wirtschaftswoche", the German plaintiffs are now claiming price losses on the stock market that were caused by the concealment of the litigation risks during the takeover of Monsanto in 2016.

The limitation period for this expired at the end of 2021.

According to the report, the claims of the plaintiffs add up to around 2.2 billion euros.

Among them are small shareholders as well as institutional investors.

As a result of the Monsanto takeover and several lost US court cases, the value of Bayer shares had fallen by around half.

In mid-December, the Cologne Regional Court decided that the application by the Tilp law firm to initiate model investor proceedings against Bayer should be published in the Federal Gazette.

However, it is still uncertain whether there will actually be a corresponding procedure, it said in the report, citing legal experts.

Bayer rejected the allegations.

"We consider the lawsuits due to allegedly incorrect capital market communication in connection with the Monsanto acquisition to be unfounded," the Dax group told Wirtschaftswoche.

Bayer complied with the law and complied with its publication obligations: "We will defend ourselves accordingly in the proceedings."

mic / AFP