Bayer Schering ‘has very good prospects for the future’

The chairman of Bayer Schering’s management board has said the company has very good prospects’ for future business.

Dr Hubertus Erlen spoke at an Extraordinary Stockholders’ Meeting held on Wednesday, at which he appealed for representatives’ consent to resolve on a domination and profit and loss transfer agreement.

The business is currently very healthy and is performing well, after 155 years of independence, states Mr Erlen. He also said that recommendation of the takeover bid to the stockholders had been a right decision to make.

The agreement in question is with Bayer’s subsidiary Dritte BV GmbH, with Bayer owning over 95 per cent of outstanding shares in the pharmaceutical company. Bayer states the agreement would lead to the renaming of Schering AG to “Bayer Schering Pharma Aktiengesellschaft”.

Dr Erlen said: “By merging the pharmaceuticals businesses of Bayer and Schering, we will create a new global company with very good prospects for the future.”

The domination and profit and loss agreement has been proposed to ensure that outside stockholders are “fairly treated” and is intended to create the basis for achieving commercial legal and tax advantages. It has also been designed to aid the integration of Schering into the Bayer Group.

Dr Erlen is part of an outgoing management board at Schering AG, which will be replaced today (Thursday). He concluded his speech yesterday by telling employees that they “have done outstanding work, particularly in the takeover situation over the past few months.”