Top Bayer Investor Says 'Furious' at Company Over Monsanto Bid

A top investor in German chemicals company Bayer has said on Friday he was "furious" at the company's refusal to engage with him over its recent bid for U.S. rival Monsanto.

John Bennett, fund manager at Henderson Global Investors, the firm's 15th biggest investor by company according to Eikon data, said Bayer's chief executive had only been in the job for weeks and had presided over an "immediate destruction" of shareholder value after the firm's stock fell on news of the bid.

"The fine work of his predecessor has been ripped up. I had hoped that the days of such arrogant empire-building and ignorance of the actual owners of the business were at an end," Bennett said in emailed comments to Reuters.

"The Board of Bayer should be considering the CEO's position."

On Thursday, Bayer made an unsolicited bid for Monsanto, aiming to create the world's biggest agricultural supplier.

(Reporting by Simon Jessop; editing by Carolyn Cohn)