Aspirin maker Bayer mulls cure for its Monsanto branding headache
The German chemicals giant has increased profit forecasts after signing the takeover deal, but must find a way to deal with possible damage to its reputation
FRANKFURT — German chemicals giant Bayer said Tuesday it had increased its earnings and profit forecasts after signing a deal to take over US seeds and pesticides producer Monsanto.It also said it was considering dropping the Monsanto name after the merger, to cure a branding headache."We are optimistic for the medium-term development of Bayer and have set ourselves correspondingly ambitious targets," chief executive Werner Baumann said in a statement.In the crop science division that will integrate Monsanto, Bayer said it would grow sales faster than the market and increase its profit margin to "more than 30%" after 2020, three years after the merger is slated to be finalised.Between them, Monsanto and Bayer’s crops division brought in ¤23.1bn in sales in 2015.Bayer justified the predictions with a "broad product palette and research and development pipeline" for the two companies, adding that the merged firms would bring new products to market faster.The ¤58.8bn deal is the larges...
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