Bloomberg -- Bayer AG (BAYN), the German maker of aspirin, is open to a “merger of equals” that would strengthen its health-care unit without paying a premium for a large acquisition, Chief Executive Officer Marijn Dekkers said.
Three or four companies may be considered Bayer’s equals in a merger of drug units, Dekkers said in an interview at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York. He declined to elaborate.
Doubling the size of Bayer’s health unit, which had 16.9 billion euros ($25.1 billion) in sales last year, would create a drugmaker on par with European rivals Sanofi-Aventis SA (SAN), GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK) and AstraZeneca Plc. (AZN) Bayer, based in Leverkusen, Germany, is relying on its two chemical units to drive growth this year, forecasting that revenue gains at the drug division won’t match the market. Being bigger isn’t essential, though it may be advantageous, said Dekkers, who took over as CEO in October.
