FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - A strategy update on Tuesday did not bring the relief investors had hoped for in Bayer shares. After a halving of the share price in ten months, the shares of the Dax group lost three percent to just over 27 euros around midday on Tuesday and fell to a low for almost 20 years. The last time the shares were worth so little was in mid-2005. Most recently, the drop amounted to 1 percent.

Although the agrochemical and pharmaceutical group exceeded the average analysts' estimates with its operating result last year, this was also due to one-off effects, explained analyst Richard Vosser from the bank JPMorgan.

In addition, there will be no demerger of the Group for the time being. Instead, Bayer is specifying its savings targets in connection with a streamlining of management.

"The strategy is therefore to save billions and restructure instead of splitting up and selling off individual business units," wrote Jürgen Molnar from the broker Robomarkets. The latter is a good option from a shareholder perspective - "but not at any price, and that is never attractive under pressure," commented the market strategist.

There is also the question of what "profitable rump" would remain at the end of the day. It might not be the worst option for CEO Bill Anderson to get the company back on track first.

That would be sorely needed from a shareholder perspective. The share price has halved since May last year. Even in the stock market year 2024, the picture so far is bleak: the share price loss of almost 19 percent is only exceeded by RWE shares in the leading Dax index, which have lost a quarter.

Since summer 2018, the share price losses have been even greater at over 70 percent. Back then, the first US lawsuit concerning the alleged cancer risks of weed killers containing glyphosate was lost. A wave of lawsuits followed.

Around 54,000 cases are currently still open. The provisions set aside for this amounted to 6.3 billion US dollars (5.7 billion euros) at the end of 2023./mis/bek/stk