THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. ***** Wednesday, July 31, 2019 |B3
BUSINESS NEWS
The company said the num-
ber of plaintiffs suing over the
herbicide Roundup acquired in
the Monsanto deal rose by an-
other 5,000 over the past
three months, highlighting the
difficulty in putting to rest a
damaging legal battle over the
world’s most widely used
weedkiller.Overall sales grew 21% from
last year’s second quarter to
€11.5 billion, boosted by its ac-
quisition of Monsanto. Profit
fell by nearly half to €404 mil-
lion, crimped by restructuring
costs and write-downs, as well
as the challenges in the crop
division.
A wet planting season in
the U.S. Midwest delayedfarmers from getting their
corn crop into the ground,
while dry weather across Eu-
rope and Canada hit demand
for herbicides and fungicides.
Despite that challenge, Bayer
said it is optimistic that its ag-
ricultural business can re-
bound as planting begins in
the Southern Hemisphere.
Shares of Bayer fell nearly
4% to €57.16 on Tuesday.
The Leverkusen, Germany-
based inventor of Aspirin has
lost almost 40% of its market
value since acquiring Mon-
santo. Investors fear the law-
suits will cost the company
several billions of dollars and
jeopardize plans to boost prof-
its by expanding in the agri-
culture sector.
Bayer has been entangled in
a legal battle that pits it
against thousands of cancer
patients claiming Monsanto-
invented Roundup weedkillers
cause cancer. The number of
plaintiffs rose to 18,400 as of
July 11 from 13,400 in April,
Bayer said.
“While this is an increasesince our last reporting, it is
by no means a reflection of
the merits of the litigation,”
Bayer Chief Executive Werner
Baumann told analysts, adding
that the company will “only
consider a settlement if finan-
cially reasonable.”
Bayer lost the first three
jury verdicts in the U.S. with
the biggest award topping $2
billion, though last week a Cal-
ifornia judge reduced that
penalty to $86.7 million.
Bayer, which argues that
Roundup and its active ingre-
dient glyphosate are safe, is
appealing the verdicts.
In recent weeks, Bayer has
stepped up efforts to reassure
investors that it is doing what
it can to get the legal woes un-
der control after shareholders
staged a revolt at the group’s
last annual meeting.
In June, Bayer bowed to
shareholder pressure by an-
nouncing it would review its
approach to defending itself
against the claims and hiring a
high-profile lawyer to advise
on legal strategy.BERLIN— Bayer AG warned
that severe weather affecting
its crop-science division could
put its 2019 sales target out of
reach, adding to concerns
about the fallout from last
year’s acquisition of Mon-
santo.
The German chemical-and-
pharmaceutical giant is grap-
pling with the effects of what
analysts say has been one of
the worst crop-planting sea-
sons in the U.S. on record.
On Tuesday, it reported a
49% drop in profit for the
quarter ended in June, as ex-
treme weather across the U.S.,
Canada and Europe hurt the
crop-science division, Bayer’s
largest unit by sales.
Chief Financial Officer
Wolfgang Nickl said that im-
pact makes the company’s full-
year goals seem “increasingly
ambitious.”
Bayer has targeted a 4%
rise in group sales to €46 bil-
lion ($51.3 billion) for 2019.BYSARAGERMANO
ANDRUTHBENDERWeather Buffets Bayer Crops Unit
A bad planting season in the U.S. and liabilities tied to the weedkiller Roundup are weighing on the company. A Bayer lab in Frankfurt.ALEX KRAUS/BLOOMBERG NEWS49%
Decline in earnings for the
latest quartermore than 10 times the 150
stores Starbucks has in India.
The company’s shares
plunged the maximum al-
lowed 20% on Tuesday and
its board met to try to reas-
sure investors, employees
and customers that business
would continue as usual.
The company also released
a copy of a letter it said was
purportedly from Mr. Sid-
dhartha, addressed to the
board and employees, with
what look like Mr. Sid-
dhartha’s letterhead and sig-
nature.
The letter apologizes and
takes responsibility for the
company’s profitability and
debt issues.
It also complains about
pressures from the com-
pany’s investors and tax au-
thorities.
Café Coffee Day became
one of India’s best-known lo-
cal brands thanks to its rapid
rollout of coffee shops across
the country.
Like Starbucks, it hasn’t
shied away from opening its
own outlets near each other.
But instead of targeting In-
dia’s affluent, Café Coffee
Day is aimed at the more
cost-conscious middle class.Indian authorities found
the body of India’s coffee
king, V.G. Siddhartha, whose
disappearance triggered an
investigation and a plunge in
the shares of his company,
Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd.
The man—who built In-
dia’s answer to Starbucks and
was worth $600 million last
year, according to estimates
by the Barclays Hurun India
Rich List—was last seen
walking on a bridge in the
southern city of Mangalore
Monday evening,.
Tracker dogs later lost Mr.
Siddhartha’s scent in the
middle of the bridge, adding
to speculation that it may
have been a suicide.
Mr. Siddhartha’s body was
fished out from Netravathi
River in the city, said state
police.
The body has been identi-
fied and sent for autopsy to a
local hospital.
Mr. Siddhartha was chair-
man and managing director
of the company behind In-
dia’s biggest coffee chain,
Café Coffee Day, which has
more than 1,700 outlets,BYERICBELLMAN
ANDRAJESHROYChairman of Rival
To Starbucks in
India Found Dead
V.G. Siddhartha founded Café Coffee Day, one of India’s best-
known local brands.AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
WESEETHINGSOTHERSCAN’T.
Digitaltransformationiscreatingnewtypesofriskseveryday.Youneedtorethinkthewayyou
deliversecurityandserviceassuranceforyourdigitallytransformedbusiness.OnlyNETSCOUT
deliversconsistentdetection,prevention,andresponseacrossanynetwork,anydatacenter,
Cloud,5Gandmore.Wecallthis VISIBILITYWITHOUTBORDERS
TM
.SeewhattheothersaremissingatNETSCOUT.com.
EXPOSETHEDARKTHREATS.ELIMINATETHERISK.