A few days before its eagerly awaited Capital Markets Day, Bayer announces a change in the Board of Management of its over-the-counter health products business.

The current head of the Consumer Health Division, Heiko Schipper, has asked the Supervisory Board to terminate his contract prematurely, the Leverkusen-based pharmaceutical and agricultural company announced on Thursday. The 54-year-old wants to continue his career outside Bayer and will leave the company at the end of April. His successor as head of the division and member of the Board of Management will be Julio Triana. The 58-year-old has worked for Bayer since 2002 and is currently Head of Commercial Operations Region International in the Group's pharmaceuticals business.

CEO Bill Anderson will present his plans for the future of Bayer at the Capital Markets Day on March 5. He has so far rejected the idea of splitting the Group into three parts at the same time. In addition to retaining three divisions, he saw a separation of the Consumer Health business or the Agriculture division as the main possible options.

The surprising personnel move suggests that Anderson may tackle the Consumer Health division on Tuesday. Analysts at Barclays recently considered it most likely that Bayer will cash in on this business: "Although it is relatively small, it has developed well in recent years." Former Nestle manager Schipper has been a member of the Bayer Board of Management since 2018 and head of the division with brands such as Aspirin and Bepanthen. Under his leadership, the former problem child has achieved a successful turnaround.

Investors such as the fund company Union Investment have already described a spin-off of Consumer Health as value-creating in the past. A spin-off could eliminate the conglomerate discount at Bayer, as conglomerates are often valued lower on the stock market than their individual parts. However, insiders told Reuters in January that Anderson would not be making any major structural changes this year. He first wants to concentrate on the introduction of his new, simplified operating model, which involves a considerable reduction in personnel.

In addition to the appointment to the Board of Management, Bayer also announced new candidates for its Supervisory Board. The activist investor Jeffery Ubben, whom Bayer is proposing for election to the board, is to be given a seat there. Ubben was one of the investors who had urged the company to find a successor to outgoing CEO Werner Baumann from outside its own ranks. Bayer complied by appointing the former Roche pharmaceuticals boss Anderson, who has been at the helm of the company since June.

(Report by Patricia Weiß, edited by Ralf Banser. If you have any queries, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)