The recently dampened euphoria at Bayer for a possible solution to the wave of US glyphosate lawsuits was revived somewhat on Wednesday. After announcing a class settlement with the plaintiffs in mid-February, the Leverkusen-based company has now announced preliminary approval by the competent court in St. Louis, Missouri. "This is the first important step in the implementation of the class settlement," Bayer announced.
The shares, which had previously also suffered from a partly disappointing outlook for the current financial year, were able to clearly contain their temporary drop of 7.6 percent, ultimately falling 2.4 percent to 37.40 euros. Since almost reaching the 50 euro mark in February due to a planned multi-billion euro class action settlement, the share price has been on a steady downward trend, but is now back in positive territory for the year to date.
Since November, Bayer had initially raised investors' hopes for growth with study data on the anticoagulant Asundexian, which triggered a share price rally. In addition, in the new year, investors were betting on progress in the US glyphosate litigation after the highest US court, the US Supreme Court, accepted a case for hearing. Bayer is hoping for a positive landmark ruling here, which could be handed down as early as June.
