FRANKFURT, March 4 (Reuters) – Germany’s Bayer on Wednesday issued a 2026 earnings target range below market expectations, as the drugmaker’s CEO struggles to revive a stock battered by costly litigation and massive financial debt.
Based on foreign exchange rates at the end of 2025, the company projected earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) before special items of 9.1 billion euros ($10.57 billion) to 9.6 billion euros.
The upper end was slightly below market expectations of 9.67 billion euros, based on an analyst consensus posted on the group’s website. That compares with a figure of also 9.67 billion that Bayer reported for 2025.
CEO Bill Anderson has been overhauling Bayer’s management structure but he has suspended a strategic review that could have led to a break-up of the diversified group.
Bayer last month struck an agreement worth as much as $7.25 billion to resolve tens of thousands of product liability claims after years of grappling with litigation over weed killer Roundup from its 2018 takeover of Monsanto.
($1 = 0.8612 euros)
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger and Patricia Weiss, editing by Kirsti Knolle)
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