FRANKFURT, Germany (Reuters) — Bayer beat first-quarter analyst forecasts as it reported a slight drop in adjusted earnings lat week, providing a respite for chief executive officer Bill Anderson’s turnaround efforts.
The company also lowered its full-year earnings outlook, citing negative currency effects, but retained its operating forecast.
The company’s quarterly earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), adjusted for one-off items, slipped 1.3 per cent to US$4.79 billion, above an average analyst estimate of$4.48 billion posted on the company’s website.
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“The Pharmaceuticals Division saw gains in growth and profitability, and the Crop Science Division outperformed in a difficult market,” Bayer said in a statement.
It said that based on end-of-March exchange rates, EBITDA before special items would likely come in between $11 billion and $11.1 billion in 2024, compared with a previous target range of $11.2 to $11.9 billion.
That would be down from $12.6 billion in 2023.
Under Anderson’s push to speed up business decisions and slash excess bureaucracy, Bayer cut the equivalent of 1,500 full-time jobs during the first quarter.
The company, which had close to 100,000 staff at the end of 2023, has not published any job reduction targets, saying only cutbacks would be significant.
“The most important measure of our impact will be much greater than a job number or a cost savings target. It will be in our ability to innovate, grow our businesses and improve life for our customers,” Anderson said in the statement.
