Shares are rising
Bayer wanted after US ruling on glyphosate
December 27, 2023, 11:22 a.m
The DAX group Bayer is still burdened by more than 50,000 lawsuits regarding the herbicide glyphosate. Now the Leverkusen team has once again received a positive verdict in the USA. Analysts do not see this as a trend reversal. Investors are nevertheless putting aside their reluctance to buy shares.
After a favorable glyphosate ruling for the agrochemical company Bayer in the USA, investors are turning to the Leverkusen DAX group. The share peaks at almost three percent. In the late morning the increase was 2.4 percent. However, market participants are dampening their expectations of the verdict. The outcome of the process is nothing more than a stage victory after several defeats. The fundamental picture remains difficult and there can be no question of an all-clear.
After losing five lawsuits in a row, Bayer has again won a glyphosate lawsuit in the USA. The verdict by a jury in San Benito County is consistent with the evidence in the case that the weed killer Roundup does not cause cancer and is not responsible for the plaintiff’s illness, the company said.
Bayer has long been exposed to similar lawsuits in the USA. The company brought the lawsuits in-house when it took over the glyphosate developer Monsanto in 2018. According to Bayer, 52,000 of the total of around 165,000 lawsuits filed were still open. Bayer had always rejected the allegations against the herbicide. Authorities worldwide classified the drug as not carcinogenic. The cancer research agency IARC of the World Health Organization (WHO), however, rated the active ingredient as “probably carcinogenic” in 2015.
After the latest verdict, Bayer said it had now won 10 of the last 15 lawsuits and saw itself strengthened in its strategy of bringing lawsuits to court. Bayer has already paid around $9.5 billion to get lawsuits settled. Just last week, a US jury in Washington state ordered the Leverkusen company to pay a total of 857 million US dollars (785 million euros) in damages. These are intended to go to former students and parents of a school in the Seattle area. As in other cases, Bayer plans to appeal the ruling.