BAYZF - Bayer AG (BAYZF) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

2024-03-05 10:08:10 ET

Bayer AG (BAYZF)

Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call

March 05, 2024, 03:30 ET

Company Participants

Michael Preuss - Head, Communications, Government Relations and Corporate Brand

Julio Triana - Head, Commercial Operations Region International

William Anderson - Chairman & CEO

Heike Prinz - Chief Talent Officer & Labor Director

Heiko Schipper - President, Consumer Health Division

Wolfgang Nickl - CFO

Stefan Oelrich - Head, Pharmaceuticals Division

Rodrigo Santos - President, Crop Science Division

Conference Call Participants

Tim Loh - Bloomberg

Aimee Donnellan - Reuters

Kevin Grogan - Scrip

Olaf Storbeck - Financial Times

Isabella Bufacchi - Il Sole

Patricia Weiss - Reuters

Ludwig Burger - Reuters

Jonas Jansen - Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Reynald Castañeda - Endpoint News

Stephen Wilmot - The Wall Street Journal

Presentation

Michael Preuss

Hello, everyone, and many thanks for joining us today for our strategic update and 2024 annual press conference. Thanks very much for your time and your interest in Bayer.

As you know, we will host our Capital Markets Day with investors and analysts later today here in London. But before this afternoon's session, we wanted to give you the opportunity to hear an update on the company's strategic priorities and outlook as well as business results for 2023 and guidance for 2024. All members of Bayer's Board of Management are here in the room, and you will hear from each of them before we open the floor for your questions and their answers.

Okay. Let's get started. But before we begin, I would like to draw your attention to the forward-looking statement disclaimer and other legal information provided on this chart.

And with that, I'd like now to hand it over to the CEO of Bayer, Bill Anderson.

William Anderson

Well, welcome, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. As Michael just said, we have the whole Board here including our 2 newest members. Heike's been with us since last summer, so she may already be familiar to some. And Julio is so new to the team that he's not even officially on board yet. He was named the next President of our Consumer Health division. Julio has been in health care for 30 years. And he pairs strong commercial, financial and analytic skill sets. He joins us from the pharma division, and he's also spent considerable time in Consumer Health. Heiko is still fully on board until the end of April, and he'll be representing his business today.

But I'd also like to give you the chance to get to know Julio. So why don't you say a few words?

Julio Triana

Yes. Thanks, Bill, and hello to all of you. It is a real pleasure for me to be here today. I'm looking forward to officially joining the Board and the Consumer Health team.

The consumer health market is an incredibly attractive and dynamic market. Our business is home to great brands and tremendous science. Heiko and the team have done a fantastic job with the business, and I can't wait to get started to get to know you.

Thank you. Thanks, Bill.

William Anderson

Well, thanks, Julio, and to all of you. We really appreciate you taking an interest in Bayer. We're very happy to have the opportunity to share our plans for the company with all of you today.

Let me start by looking at where the company comes from. Over decades, Bayer has built businesses in crop science, pharmaceuticals and consumer health. That's happened through organic growth, and a lot of M&A, including 12 major transactions in less than 20 years. That includes 7 acquisitions and 5 separations.

In that time, Bayer has almost completely changed its lines of business, from being one of the world's largest chemical companies now down to 3 areas of focus. That's a remarkable feat, and my predecessors have shown remarkable strategic foresight and guts. But all that rearrangement has come at a very high cost, both in terms of the debt that we now have on our balance sheet and in shifting the focus away from operations.

And what is operations? That's really the core task of ensuring that each employee can add value for customers every day. Well, that's where we come from. Today, we're only 10 weeks into the year, but I'd like to share a snapshot on what's happened both inside and outside of the company in just the past 65 days. ...

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