Posted By Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on January 14, 2025
ZURICH (Reuters) - Bayer will focus on paying down debt and not make any major acquisitions in the next two or three years, the head of the German company's pharmaceuticals division said in an interview published on Tuesday.
"I don't see any major acquisitions in the next two or three years at least," Stefan Oelrich told Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung.
Over the last five or six years, the pharmaceutical division has invested between 8 billion and 10 billion euros($8.20 billion and $10.25 billion) in external deals, he said, with the group's priority now to reduce debt.
"But we have a small acquisition budget, for example for the purchase of additional licenses," he told the newspaper.
Oelrich said there was also no reason to split Bayer, whose businesses span agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and non-prescription drugs.
"We function with three very independent businesses," he said. "As long as the structure does not hinder the individual businesses in our respective markets, there is no reason to break it up," he told the newspaper.
"We may no longer be among the top five in the world in the pharmaceutical business, but in this business, size is not the decisive factor. Innovation is."
($1 = 0.9757 euros)
(Reporting by John Revill, editing by Rachel More)
