No major structural changes are expected this year. Two people familiar with the matter told the Reuters news agency on Thursday that Anderson initially wanted to concentrate on introducing a new operating model at Bayer. "Operational improvements in the divisions have priority before making strategic changes in the short term," said one of the insiders. The dust must first settle, as the new operating model is associated with a considerable reduction in staff, said the other person familiar with the situation. There are also no official bank mandates yet.

A Bayer spokesperson did not wish to comment on this. The news agency Bloomberg had first reported the news. Bayer shares fell more than three percent on the stock market, making it the biggest loser in the leading DAX index.

The pressure on Anderson, who has led the company since June, is high. Investors expect him to review the Group structure with its three divisions of pharmaceuticals, agriculture and over-the-counter healthcare products. He must also regain the trust of investors, which had suffered above all from the billion-euro takeover of glyphosate developer Monsanto and the wave of US lawsuits over the weedkiller's alleged carcinogenic effects. Anderson intends to announce further details of the strategy at a capital markets day on March 5.

At the quarterly balance sheet in November, he rejected the idea of splitting the Group into three parts at the same time: "We have ruled out this option. A split into three companies would require a two-stage process." In addition to retaining three divisions, a separation of the consumer health business with over-the-counter health products or the agricultural division Crop Science are the main options that are still being seriously examined.

TRADE UNION OPPOSES BAYER SPIN-OFF

On Wednesday evening, Bayer announced that it had begun to introduce a new operating model, which would also involve a considerable reduction in personnel - at the expense of many managers. The Leverkusen-based company wants to reduce hierarchies, eliminate bureaucracy, streamline structures and speed up decision-making processes. The employee side was quoted unusually clearly: "As employee representatives, we are vigorously committed to the continued existence of the Group with all three divisions," explained Heike Hausfeld, Chairwoman of the General Works Council and Deputy Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board.

Opposition to a possible split has also come from the trade unions. Francesco Grioli, who sits on the Bayer Supervisory Board for IG BCE, explained that he sees the greatest opportunities for the future of the employees in the existing "ONE Bayer structure". At the beginning of the week, Michael Vassiliadis, head of the IG BCE trade union, said that the union considered a split-up of Bayer to be wrong. The individual parts of Bayer could then become weaker and themselves be the target of takeovers again. In addition, there is a risk of headquarters being moved abroad, for example to the USA in the case of the agricultural division Crop Science. "For us, it's about keeping Bayer together," he emphasized.

(Report by Patricia Weiß, Ludwig Burger and Emma-Victoria Farr, edited by Ralf Banser. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)