Bayer CEO Weighs In On Guidance, Listing Of Material Science Business And Acquisition Of Syngenta

Bayer AG (ADR)BAYRY reported a 21 percent year-over-year rise to $1.27 billion in second-quarter profits earlier today. Marijn Dekkers, CEO of Bayer, was on CNBC recently to weigh in on the company's guidance and shed light on the listing of its material science arm.

Guidance

"We have reconfirmed our guidance," Dekkers began. "We have made some adjustments for FX changes of course because particularly the euro and dollar move around a little bit also again since the first-quarter."

"But I would say we are guiding earnings improvements in the upper teens percent. So, that is really for a company the size of Bayer with almost 50 billion euro in sales, upper teens earnings increase is quite significant. And it's a challenge to get there, but we are confident that we will get there."

Material Science Listing

Dekkers was asked Bayer's plans for listing its material science business. He replied, "We will be listing in Frankfurt in Germany. We have said that material science will be an independent traded company at the latest to middle of next year 2016. So, we have about 9 months or so left to do that. Our preference is to do it in an IPO."

"And I would say if the market conditions stayed the way they are in the stock market, we should be reaching that goal very clearly."

Syngenta Not A Target

Dekkers refuted rumors of Bayer acquiring Syngenta, saying, "Syngenta is not a logical acquisition target for Bayer because there is quite some overlap in the businesses where both Syngenta and Bayer are very strong."

Bayer was up 3.18% at 11:29, the time of this writing.