Bayer CropScience Annual Press Conference
Monheim (Germany). Bayer CropScience intends to more intensively exploit the long-term potential for growth in the global agriculture market.
With a view to this objective, the company plans to increase its commitment to Research & Development and the dynamically growing seed business. The implementation of a restructuring project to improve the cost situation is intended to simultaneously boost long-term profitability so that further investments can be made in future-oriented technologies and growth markets.
“Our planning for the next decade is based on three pillars: a strong Crop Protection business with innovative active ingredients as the mainstay of our company, a dynamically growing Environmental Science business with above-average profitability and a rapidly expanding Seeds and Traits business,” said Professor Friedrich Berschauer, Chairman of the Board of Management of Bayer CropScience, at the Annual Press Conference in Monheim, Germany, in regard to the company’s growth strategy.
The share of sales contributed by Seeds & Traits – the business with seeds and genetically enhanced crop characteristics – is planned to increase from approximately 6% at present to 15% in 2015.
According to the CEO, Bayer CropScience plans to further strengthen its innovative power and increase its annual research expenditure to some EUR 750 million by 2015. The research budget for the BioScience business unit will be increased from approximately EUR 80 million per year at present to more than EUR 200 million in 2015. The annual R&D budget in traditional crop protection in the long run will then amount to around EUR 500 million per year.
Long-term market developments offer opportunities for growth
Berschauer believes that the agricultural sector continues to offer good long-term opportunities for research-based companies. According to Bayer CropScience’s estimates, the market volume for crop protection products and seeds and the end consumer-oriented home & garden segment will grow from EUR 44 billion at present to approximately EUR 48 billion in 2015.
Market growth in coming years will be driven primarily by the launch of modern, innovative crop protection products and the ongoing trend towards increased use of commercial seeds. The Bayer subgroup also expects there to be an increased demand for agricultural products for use in biofuels, which will benefit both the seed business and the crop protection market.
Innovative agricultural chemistry to remain the driving force at Bayer CropScience
Innovation will remain the fundamental precondition for the further development of the company in the future. “We remain committed to all three indications – herbicides, fungicides and insecticides – in Crop Protection, thereby underlining our innovation leadership in the industry”, Berschauer confirmed. New active ingredients are being launched to replace older crop protection products, enabling Bayer CropScience to position innovative products with greater value creation on the market.
The current launch program comprises 26 active ingredients scheduled to be launched from 2000 to 2011 with a peak sales potential of approximately EUR 2 billion. According to the Bayer CropScience CEO, the company’s pipeline also looks promising for the years ahead. Accordingly, the share of sales generated by patent-protected crop protection products should increase in the coming 10 years to more than 50 %. This impressively confirms the innovative power of Bayer CropScience, stressed Berschauer.
The constant flow of new active ingredients will also be used by Environmental Science for non-agricultural applications. The company’s strong Bayer Garten/Bayer Advanced brands are important and active players in a highly profitable market. “We plan to further increase our share of the Environmental Science market in the coming years,” added Berschauer.
Seed business as growth driver
Bayer CropScience estimates that the expanding business with commercial seeds will be one of the strongest growth drivers in the global agriculture market. The company expects the global market to grow from approximately EUR 13 billion at present to EUR 18 billion in 2015 (approximately 3 % per year). The reason for this growth is the trend towards high-quality seed, in particular hybrid seed which is characterised by its high yield. The CEO summarised Bayer CropScience’s strategy as follows: “Our goal in the Seeds & Traits business is to achieve profitable growth and, in the long term, attain the same level of margins that we have in the agrochemicals business.”
Berschauer estimates that the market for vegetable, rice, cotton and canola seed will grow by approximately 4 % per year and account for a good third of the global commercial seed market by 2015.
The company’s seed business and seed treatment products are already benefiting from the growth of the commercial seeds market. In the future, Bayer CropScience intends to foster strong growth by gaining access to new geographical markets and extending its seed business to include new crops, such as oilseeds, food and feed crops. “Targeted acquisitions in certain market segments are certainly conceivable,” added Berschauer. “In parallel to expanding our business with seeds, we also want to concentrate more intensively on the development of proprietary traits.”
Consolidate leading position in crop protection
Dr Rüdiger Scheitza, member of the board of management of Bayer CropScience and Head of Portfolio Management, also explained how the company’s growth strategy will be implemented. New, innovative active ingredients play an important role in consolidating Bayer CropScience’s leading market position. Sales of new products launched since 2000 increased by 17 % to EUR 607 million in the first half of 2006. Particularly high sales growth in this period was recorded by the fungicide prothioconazole with + 31.4 % and the herbicide mesosulfuron with + 20.7 %. The contribution made by new active ingredients to total sales now amounts to almost one fifth. “We have set ourselves the goal of achieving sales of EUR 1 billion this year with products based on new active ingredients. We are confident of reaching this target,” said Scheitza.
Reduction of complexity thanks to active portfolio management
One element of the growth strategy is the concentration on products with greater value creation. Bayer CropScience has tightened up its portfolio, and has already divested 27 active ingredients, with another two substances scheduled for divestment before the end of 2006. Said Scheitza, “This has allowed us to reduce complexity and markedly rejuvenate our portfolio.” The successful market launches of new active ingredients over the past years more than compensated for the drop in sales, noted Scheitza. The number of active substances in the portfolio will be reduced from 99 in 2006 to 87 by 2010; in 2000, this figure was markedly higher at 114.
First half of 2006: sales at the same level as previous year
“We regard the global agricultural business as a growth market in the long term, despite 2006 being clearly not an easy year for the industry,” explained Berschauer. Bayer CropScience sales in the first six months of 2006 were on the same level as last year at EUR 3.35 billion. Adjusted for exchange rate and portfolio effects, sales were 2.6 % below the same period in 2005. The changeable weather conditions in Europe, periods of drought in North America and Australia and the continuing difficult farming situation in Brazil caused a decline of 1.9 % in the crop protection business. A sustained decline in prices for older crop protection products and significant increases to raw material and energy costs also contributed to this decline.
Despite the difficult market environment, Bayer CropScience’s EBIT increased by 10.8 %. One reason was the good performance by non-agricultural applications and BioScience, which posted sales increases of 7.2 and 11.7 % respectively. For 2006 as a whole, Berschauer expects sales to drop as a result of the unfavorable market environment in the second half of the year.
Potential savings of some EUR 300 million per year as of 2010 identified
In August 2006, Bayer CropScience initiated a restructuring program to improve its cost situation. The package of measures includes a reduction in the number of production and formulation plants from 50 at present to about 35 and some 1,500 job losses worldwide. The objective is to produce a long-term reduction in the infrastructure and process costs in Development, Production, Logistics and Marketing. Positive contributions to the EBIT are expected from 2008 onwards. On the basis of the recently agreed measures, Bayer CropScience anticipates being able to achieve the targeted 25 % EBIDTA margin by 2009.
About Bayer CropScience
Bayer CropScience, a subsidiary of Bayer AG with annual sales of about EUR 6 billion, is one of the world’s leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of crop protection, non-agricultural pest control, seeds and plant biotechnology. The company offers an outstanding range of products and extensive service backup for modern, sustainable agriculture and for non-agricultural applications. Bayer CropScience has a global workforce of about 19,000 and is represented in more than 120 countries. This and further news is available at: www.newsroom.bayercropscience.com
Contact:
Steffen Kurzawa, phone: +49 2173 38-3504
E-mail: steffen.kurzawa@bayercropscience.com
Utz Klages, phone: +49 2173 38-3125
E-mail: utz.klages@bayercropscience.com
www.bayercropscience.com
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer CropScience AG management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of Bayer CropScience AG or our holding company Bayer AG and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in public reports filed by Bayer AG with the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (including Form 20-F). Neither Bayer AG nor Bayer CropScience AG assumes any liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.