FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Bayer AG shares benefited on Thursday from a US court ruling on the chemical PCB and climbed to their highest level in about a month. In the late morning, the shares of the pharmaceutical and agrochemical company were trading 4.4 percent higher at 28.55 euros, making them the clear leader in the DAX. However, with an annual loss of around 15 percent, they are still among the weakest stocks in the leading German index.

Bayer achieved a potentially groundbreaking success in court in the USA in the dispute over contaminated sites caused by the chemical PCB, which has been banned for decades. An appeals court in the state of Washington overturned a 2021 ruling that had awarded three teachers damages totaling USD 185 million. The teachers had blamed PCBs in the school building for brain damage. The Court of Appeal found flaws in the judgment of the lower court and referred the case back to it.

Bayer is now hoping for a signal effect for other cases in this school, of which a total of around 200 people had filed a lawsuit. The Leverkusen-based company argues that the products containing PCBs, such as lighting fixtures and sealants, were not manufactured by Monsanto, but by other companies. Moreover, they should have been replaced decades ago.

The court ruling is an important victory for the Leverkusen-based company, commented expert Charlie Bentley from analyst firm Jefferies. This is because it calls into question the negative court decisions against Bayer in other cases, for which Bayer has been sentenced to pay fines totaling more than one billion dollars./edh/ag/jha/