Online retail stifling pharmaceutical industry, Bayer CEO says
German drug and agricultural giant Bayer can’t keep up with the online retail trends, the CEO Werner Baumann said Wednesday.
“The consumer business overall, is actually impacted across … our competitors business, by fairly dramatic and rapid change in consumer behaviors,” Baumann told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo on “Mornings with Maria.”
This comes as the chemical crop maker missed expectations on fourth-quarter revenue, due in part to a hit from U.S. tax reform.
The company is ramping up business around innovation, Baumann added.
“The stronger advance of online buying with less store traffic if you look at stationary retail – we are adapting to it, we need to do this faster,” he said. “But clearly 2017 was not a good year for our consumer business.”
Meanwhile, Bayer is set to gain regulatory approval from the U.S. Department of Justice and European Union for its $66 billion bid for the world’s top seed company Monsanto. The company expects to close the transaction by the second quarter, Baumann said.
Bayer shares dropped Wednesday 3.4 percent to a 15-month low.