Bayer announced plans to cut its dividend a staggering 95% over the next three years as it looks to recover from debt associated with its acquisition of Monsanto Co., which thrust the German corporation to the center of multiple lawsuits involving Roundup weed killer.
The dividend cut was expected, according to Bloomberg, which said that the reduction underscores the company’s struggle to recover from its $63 billion takeover of Roundup-maker Monsanto in 2018.
Bayer said it will offer investors only the legal minimum required under German law, paying out 12 cents per share for 2023, down from $2.60 last year.
Chief executive Bill Anderson, who was tapped for the role in June 2023, said the decision to only pay out a legal minimum for the next three years “was not taken lightly,” according to Bloomberg.
Bayer’s stock was little-changed in following the news, though its share price is down more than 16% year to date.
The shares have lost about two thirds of their value since the Monsanto transaction, according to Bloomberg.
Since the acquisition, Bayer has also been buried in legal costs and rising interest rates, amounting to nearly $42 billion worth of debt, according to a recent filing obtained by Bloomberg.
Some 165,000 claims have been made against the company for personal injuries allegedly caused by Roundup, since 2018 — the same year the first lawsuit was filed alleging glyphosate causes cancer.
Roundup — the most widely-used herbicide to kill weeds in the US — reportedly contains 41% glyphosate, which Bayer has repeatedly argued is safe for human use.
Around 50,000 Roundup-related claims remain pending, according to regulatory filings.
Representatives for Bayer did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
The company’s most recent court battle ended in a Pennsylvania jury unanimously ruling that Roundup gave 49-year-old John McKivinson non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma — and ordered Bayer to pay the man $2.25 billion in damages.
When McKivinson sued Bayer, he claimed in court documents that he developed the cancer after using the herbicide in question on his property for two decades.
Jury members also found that Monsanto was negligent in warning customers about the dangers of Roundup.
Bayer can appeal the damages in post-trial motions before its payout to McKivinson is finalized.
Bayer called the damages in “unconstitutionally excessive” in a statement at the time, noting that it has “a winning record in the Roundup litigation — having won 10 of the last 16 cases at trial.”
Bayer won a trial in December after a California man who said he developed cancer from exposure to its Roundup weed killer, ending a five-trial losing streak for the company — which has recently doled out more than $500 million in the previous three litigation losses.
In November, a Cole County, Mo., jury similarly found that Monsanto was liable for claims of negligence, design defects and failing to warn plaintiffs of the potential dangers of using Roundup, according to court documents.
Valorie Gunther of New York, Jimmy Draeger of Missouri and Daniel Anderson of California were awarded a combined $61.1 million in compensatory damages and $500 million each in punitive damages after alleging that Roundup caused their non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnoses.
Draeger’s wife, Brenda, was also awarded $100,000 for the harm she allegedly suffered from her husband’s disease.
Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, according to the Mayo Clinic, typically starts in white blood cells and causes symptoms including enlarged lymph nodes, fatigue, dramatic weight loss, trouble breathing and night sweats.
The company had been found not liable in nine consecutive trials before that.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
