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Activist investor Jeff Oppen is set to join Bayer's supervisory board, as the struggling German group prepares to switch aspirin to glyphosate to brief investors on the possibility of a spin-off early next week.
Ubben disclosed a 0.83 per cent stake in Bayer a year ago, becoming a leading force behind the ouster of then-CEO Werner Baumann, who was replaced by Bill Anderson, a former Roche boss.
Anderson criticized the German group's performance as “unacceptable”, and in February he announced a three-year suspension of dividends to preserve cash and reduce the crippling debt burden.
In response to investor pressure to unbundle itself, the new CEO last year launched a strategic review and will update investors at its Capital Markets Day next Tuesday when it will also announce its annual results.
Aubin told the Financial Times on Thursday that he continued to hold his stake and declined to comment further. Ubben, a co-founder of activist fund ValueAct, said last year that his three-year-old firm, Inclusive Capital, had been divested. He is also a member of the board of directors of the American oil major ExxonMobil.
Bayer shares have fallen 45 cents since Ubben disclosed his stake in January last year, exposing the Inclusive Capital founder to paper losses. At the time, he said Bayer's business divisions were performing well, but he blamed management for being unable to “push the stock price.”
The company is reeling from a sprawling, multi-billion-dollar lawsuit over the US weed-killer glyphosate, which it captured in its controversial 2016 takeover of US rival Monsanto and which former users blame for giving them cancer. The company is also facing the expiration of key patents in its pharmaceutical division, and last year aborted a late-stage trial of promising new drugs.
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Under the German two-tier governance system, the Supervisory Board does not participate in day-to-day decisions but oversees and challenges the work of the Executive Board.
Along with Open, Bayer has nominated Nancy Simonyan, former CEO of US biotech company Cirrus Pharmaceuticals, and Lori Schechter, former general counsel of US healthcare group McKesson, to join its supervisory board. Shareholders are scheduled to vote on the nominations at the company's annual meeting in late April.
Last year, Aubin was actually appointed to an external independent group of experts advising Bayer's management on sustainability — a body he will leave after formally joining the supervisory board, according to Bayer.
On Thursday, Bayer also announced the early departure of the head of its consumer health unit, Heiko Schipper, who will be replaced by Giulio Triana, a senior director in the group's pharmaceutical division. Among other options, Bayer has considered carving out its consumer health unit, which specializes in over-the-counter drugs, in order to streamline its business and raise much-needed cash.
Schipper “asked the Supervisory Board to advance the expiration date of his contract in order to pursue a business opportunity outside Bayer,” the company said.
