Bayer Wins Battle for Schering at $21 Billion

In spite of attempts by Merck KGaA (Frankfurter, Germany) to spoil its takeover efforts, Bayer AG (Leverkusen, Germany) finally clinched its deal to acquire Schering AG (Berlin, Germany) for a final cost that was nearly U.S.$21 billion.

Healthcare will by far be Bayer's largest unit. The company believes its specialty products' drug sales will increase to 70% from 25% as a result of the takeover. An extraordinary stockholders' meeting of Schering AG is planned for September. Following that, the new company, called Bayer Schering Pharma AG, will be headquartered in Berlin (Germany) and will be led by a new management board chaired by Arthur Higgins, who will continue to head the Bayer Healthcare subgroup.

"We complied with the legal rules for such transactions at all times, behaved fairly, explained our strategy in full, and laid our cards on the table for everyone to see,” noted Werner Wenning, chairman of the Bayer management board, who will serve as the chairman of the supervisory board of Bayer Schering Pharma. "We will combine two successful pharmaceutical companies to form a single, even more powerful unit and create a leading global enterprise.”

"Schering is in excellent shape,” noted Dr. Hubertus Erlen, chairman of the executive board at Schering, who will serve as the vice chairman of the supervisory board of Bayer Schering Pharma. "Together with Bayer we now want to become even better. And the chances of achieving this are good.”



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