The Bayer Group has announced that Q1 2025 sales came in at €13.73 billion. After adjusting for currency and portfolio effects (Fx & portfolio adj.), sales were level with the prior-year quarter (- 0.1%). There was a negative currency effect of €55 million (Q1 2024: €525 million). EBITDA before special items decreased by 7.4 percent to €4.08 billion.

Earnings were held back by the business performance in the Crop Science Division, higher expenses for the Group-wide long-term incentive (LTI) program and a negative currency effect of €165 million (Q1 2024: €206 million) arising primarily from hyperinflationary impacts.

EBIT declined by 24.8 percent to €2.32 billion after net special charges of €587 million (Q1 2024: 207 million euros). The special charges primarily related to allocations to provisions for the Roundup litigations as well as to expenses for ongoing restructuring measures. Net income decreased by 35.1 percent to €1.29 billion euros, while core earnings per share fell by 11.7 percent to €2.49, mainly due to the decline in EBITDA before special items in the Crop Science Division.

Net financial debt as of March 31, 2025, amounted to €34.25 billion euros, marking a 5.0 percent increase from year-end 2024 that was mainly due to seasonal cash outflows from operating activities in the first quarter. However, compared to March 31, 2024, net financial debt was down 8.6 percent.

"Our first quarter puts us in a good spot to deliver in a challenging and important year for the company,” CEO Bill Anderson said on Tuesday when presenting the company’s Quarterly Statement.

He highlighted the substantial growth in earnings in the Pharmaceuticals Division. “That is an encouraging sign that our operating model is helping teams do more with less,” Anderson said. The company expects the division’s sales growth and profit margin to come in at the upper end of the range given in the full-year guidance.

“We’re confident in the momentum of our launches and the fundamentals of our business,” he said, commenting on Pharmaceuticals’ prospects. At the same time, Bayer is closely monitoring the current geopolitical and economic uncertainties, and analyzing potential impacts on the company. CFO Wolfgang Nickl said: “Based on the current status of tariffs announcements and our mitigation measures, we expect to manage the impact, and we confirm our outlook at constant currencies for the full year 2025.”

Crop Science posts moderate decline in sales as expected

Sales in the agricultural business decreased as expected, falling 3.3 percent (Fx & portfolio adj.) to €7.580 billion. Business was mainly down due to the vacatur of the label for the company’s dicamba-based crop protection products in the United States, which weighed on seeds and traits, as well as to the expiration of the Movento registration in Europe, which resulted in sales declines at Insecticides.

As previously communicated, seeds and traits were additionally impacted by planned volume phasing into the second quarter in North America following a strategic change of distribution network. In the Herbicides business, sales of glyphosate-based products fell substantially, largely due to volume phasing into subsequent quarters in Latin America and North America, whereas non-glyphosate-based products saw higher volumes against a soft prior-year quarter. Sales at Fungicides were roughly level with the prior-year quarter, with volume recovery slightly outweighing a decline in prices.

EBITDA before special items at Crop Science decreased by 10.2 percent to €2.55 billion, with earnings mainly held back by the decline in sales due to regulatory impacts. The EBITDA margin before special items declined by 2.3 percentage points to 33.7 percent.