The Leverkusen, Germany based firm said it would cut costs by €800m a year, starting in 2013, and slash 4,500 jobs, including around 1,700 in Germany. At the same time Bayer will create 2,500 new jobs, largely in emerging markets, and focus on new products, particularly in its HealthCare and CropScience divisions.
Marijn Dekkers, Bayer’s chairman, said the firm would need to ‘redirect resources, improve efficiencies and cut costs’ to finance this expansion.
By the end of 2012 the company is likely to take one-time charges of around €1bn, of which about €200m will be incurred in this year’s fourth quarter. The firm will make around 2,000 job cuts by the end of 2012.
‘Bayer has great business potential in all three subgroups. To better exploit this, we must continue to bundle existing resources and streamline our structures. That is the only way we can sustainably finance our investment in growth and innovation – for example in new pharmaceutical products, in our BioScience business and in the expansion of our capacities in Asia,’ said Dekkers.
‘The cutbacks involved will not be easy, but they are necessary. I am convinced that with more innovation and less administration, Bayer can become a better and faster company.’
The firm said in March that it had no plans to make any job cuts this year and would be adding staff in emerging markets such as India.