Bayer announces rise in group sales for Q2 but warns of lower full-year earnings than expected

German pharmaceutical giant Bayer has announced a 9% rise in group sales to €9.48bn for Q2 2018, aided in part by the contribution of recently acquired Monsanto.

Despite this group sales increase, Bayer also announced that its full-year sales and earnings statement would likely fail to meet projections.

Financial Times attributed this warning to delays in the completion of its deal to take control of Monsanto, an American agrochemical, crops, and seeds company.

“Shares in Bayer fell more than 2 per cent on Wednesday morning after the German pharmaceuticals and chemicals group said it had counted on a stronger contribution from Monsanto to lift its full-year results”, Financial times said.

It added: “The US crops and seeds company traditionally generates most of its sales and earnings in the first half of the year, but Bayer only started consolidating Monsanto’s results on June 7”.

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Bayer’s US$63bn acquisition of Monsanto, including debt, faced protracted and thorough regulatory scrutiny from both American and European competition watchdogs.

The deal resultantly took far longer to complete than Bayer anticipated, and the firm is now hoping to reach €39bn in sales, inclusive of Monsanto’s contribution, for the full year.

It is expected that the acquisition, while tumultuous in its development, will greatly benefit Bayer’s financial prospects as well as its opportunities to innovate in the agricultural sector.

Liam Condon, Member of the Bayer Board of Management of Bayer AG and President of Crop Science, said of the Monsanto acquisition: “Today’s milestone means that the two leading innovators in agriculture will now come together as one to shape agriculture through breakthrough innovation for the benefit of farmers, consumers, and our planet”.