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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
Form 6-K
REPORT OF FOREIGN PRIVATE ISSUER
PURSUANT TO RULE 13a-16 OR 15d-16
OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the month of March 2007
Bayer Aktiengesellschaft
Bayer Corporation*
(Translation of registrant’s name into English)
Bayerwerk, Gebaeude W11
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Allee
51368 Leverkusen
Germany
(Address of principal executive offices)
     Indicate by check mark whether the registrant files or will file annual reports under cover of Form 20-F or Form 40-F.
Form 20-F  X  Form 40-F      
     Indicate by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K in paper as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101 (b)(1): N/A
     Indicate by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K in paper as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101 (b)(7): N/A
     Indicate by check mark whether, by furnishing the information contained in this form, the registrant is also thereby furnishing the information to the Commission pursuant to Rule 12g3-2(b) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Yes       No  X 
     If “Yes” is marked, indicate below the file number assigned to the registrant in connection with Rule 12g3-2(b): N/A
 
*   Bayer Corporation is also the name of a wholly-owned subsidiary of the registrant in the United States.
 
 

 


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(BAYER LOGO)
   
    Science For A Better Life
Bayer Annual Report 2006

 


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Bayer: Science For A Better Life
... is more than a corporate slogan. It’s a call to action. A truly ambitious goal. A claim that demands to be vindicated every day, and that essentially means one thing: striving for improvement. The images on the opening pages of this Annual Report contain impressive examples of how the inventor company Bayer justifies that claim with products and services that enhance the quality of life. But research never stops. The company’s scientists are constantly on the track of innovations to address future challenges. And it is this that defines the fascination of Bayer.

 


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Bayer Group Key Data
                         
    2005     2006     Change  
    million     million     %  
Bayer Group
                       
 
                 
Net sales
    24,701       28,956       +17.2  
 
                 
EBITDA1
    4,122       4,675       +13.4  
 
                 
EBITDA before special items
    4,602       5,584       +21.3  
 
                 
EBIT2
    2,514       2,762       +9.9  
 
                 
EBIT before special items
    3,047       3,479       +14.2  
 
                 
Income before income taxes
    1,912       1,980       +3.6  
 
                 
Net income
    1,597       1,683       +5.4  
 
                 
Earnings per share ()3
    2.19       2.22       +1.4  
 
                 
Gross cash flow4
    3,114       3,913       +25.7  
 
                 
Net cash flow5
    3,227       3,928       +21.7  
 
                 
Capital expenditures
    1,210       1,739       +43.7  
 
                 
Research and development expenses
    1,729       2,297       +32.9  
 
                 
Dividend per Bayer AG share ()
    0.95       1.00       +5.3  
 
                 
 
                       
Bayer HealthCare
                       
 
                 
Net external sales
    7,996       11,724       +46.6  
 
                 
EBITDA1
    1,280       1,947       +52.1  
 
                 
EBITDA before special items
    1,487       2,613       +75.7  
 
                 
EBIT2
    923       1,313       +42.3  
 
                 
EBIT before special items
    1,177       1,715       +45.7  
 
                 
Gross cash flow4
    923       1,720       +86.3  
 
                 
Net cash flow5
    1,087       1,526       +40.4  
 
                 
Capital expenditures
    225       576       +156.0  
 
                 
 
                       
Bayer CropScience
                       
 
                 
Net external sales
    5,896       5,700       -3.3  
 
                 
EBITDA1
    1,284       1,166       -9.2  
 
                 
EBITDA before special items
    1,273       1,204       -5.4  
 
                 
EBIT2
    690       584       -15.4  
 
                 
EBIT before special items
    685       641       -6.4  
 
                 
Gross cash flow4
    964       900       -6.6  
 
                 
Net cash flow5
    904       898       -0.7  
 
                 
Capital expenditures
    201       197       -2.0  
 
                 
 
                       
Bayer MaterialScience
                       
 
                 
Net external sales
    9,446       10,161       +7.6  
 
                 
EBITDA1
    1,721       1,499       -12.9  
 
                 
EBITDA before special items
    1,764       1,677       -4.9  
 
                 
EBIT2
    1,250       992       -20.6  
 
                 
EBIT before special items
    1,293       1,210       -6.4  
 
                 
Gross cash flow4
    1,254       1,166       -7.0  
 
                 
Net cash flow5
    1,337       1,281       -4.2  
 
                 
Capital expenditures
    642       753       +17.3  
 
                 
 
2005 figures restated
 
1   EBITDA = EBIT plus amortization of intangible assets and depreciation of property, plant and equipment. EBITDA, EBITDA before special items and EBITDA margin are not defined in the International Financial Reporting Standards and should therefore be regarded only as supplementary information. The company considers underlying EBITDA to be a more suitable indicator of operating performance since it is not affected by depreciation, amortization, write-downs/write-backs or special items. The company also believes that this indicator gives readers a clearer picture of the results of operations and ensures greater comparability of data over time. The underlying EBITDA margin is calculated by dividing underlying EBITDA by sales.
 
2   EBIT as shown in the income statement.
 
3   Earnings per share as defined in IAS 33 = net income divided by the average number of shares. For details see Note [16] to the financial statements. For details on core earnings per share see page 25.
 
4   Gross cash flow = income after taxes from continuing operations plus income taxes, plus/minus non-operating result, minus income taxes paid, plus depreciation, amortization and write-downs, minus write-backs, plus/minus changes in pension provisions, minus gains/plus losses on retirements of noncurrent assets, plus non-cash effects of the remeasurement of acquired assets. The change in pension provisions includes the elimination of non-cash components of the operating result. It also contains benefit payments during the year. For details see Note [25].
 
5   Net cash flow = cash flow from operating activities according to IAS 7

 


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Bayer
Bayer AG defines common values, goals and strategies for the entire Group. The subgroups and service companies operate independently, led by the management holding company. The Corporate Center supports the Group Management Board in its task of strategic leadership.
Bayer HealthCare
Bayer HealthCare is among the world’s foremost innovators in the field of pharmaceutical and medical products. This subgroup’s mission is to research, develop, manufacture and market innovative products that improve the health of people and animals throughout the world.
Bayer CropScience
Bayer CropScience, with its highly effective products, pioneering innovations and keen customer focus, holds global leadership positions in crop protection and non-agricultural pest control. The company also has major activities in seeds and crop plants with genetically optimized properties.
Bayer MaterialScience
Bayer MaterialScience is a renowned supplier of high-performance materials such as polycarbonates and polyurethanes, and innovative system solutions such as coatings, for a wide range of everyday uses. Products holding leading positions on the world market account for a large proportion of its sales.
Bayer Business Services
Bayer Business Services is the Bayer Group’s international competence center for it-based services. The focus of this company’s offering is on integrated services in the core areas of it infrastructure and applications, procurement and logistics, human resources and management services, and finance and accounting.
Bayer Technology Services
Bayer Technology Services is engaged in process development and in process and plant engineering, construction and optimization. As the technological backbone of the Bayer Group worldwide, this service company offers integrated solutions throughout the life cycles of facilities, processes and products.
Bayer Industry Services
Bayer Industry Services offers services for the chemical industry including utility supply, waste management, infrastructure, safety, security, technical services, analytics and vocational training. This service company — a joint venture between Bayer and lanxess — operates Bayer’s chemical parks at Leverkusen, Dormagen and Krefeld-Uerdingen in Germany.

 


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Working to Create Value through Innovation and Growth
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, nutrition and high-tech materials. Our products and services are designed to benefit people and improve their quality of life. At the same time we want to create value through innovation, growth and high earning power.
We are firmly aligned to our mission statement “Bayer: Science For A Better Life” and continue to optimize our portfolio, concentrating our activities in three high-potential, efficient subgroups with largely independent operations: HealthCare, CropScience and MaterialScience, supported by three service companies. Our operating companies provide us with access to major global growth markets.
As an inventor company, we plan to continue setting trends in research-intensive areas. Innovation is the foundation for competitiveness and growth, and thus for our company’s success in the future.
Our expertise and our products are helping to diagnose, alleviate or cure diseases, improving the quality and adequacy of the global food supply, and contributing significantly to an active, modern lifestyle. All these aspects define the fascination of Bayer.
We are committed to the principles of sustainable development, and to our role as a socially and ethically responsible corporate citizen. For us, there is a clear link between technical and economic expertise and corporate social responsibility. This, in turn, we define as our responsibility to work for the benefit of humankind, become socially involved and make a lasting contribution to sustainable development. At Bayer, we regard economy, ecology and social commitment as objectives of equal rank.
We seek to retain society’s confidence through performance, flexibility and open communication as we work in pursuit of our overriding goals: to steadily create corporate value and generate high value-added for the benefit of our stockholders, our employees and the community in every country in which we operate.

 


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Bayer HealthCare: Innovative drugs for heart and circulation
Bayer HealthCare is particularly dedicated to combating cardiovascular disease, the world’s number one cause of death. Apart from its innovative medicines, the company also focuses on new diagnostic techniques. It recently developed and brought to market Vasovist®, an innovative contrast medium for comprehensive vascular diagnosis. A promising drug candidate for the future is rivaroxaban, an anticoagulant for the prevention and treatment of life-threatening conditions such as stroke, thrombosis and pulmonary embolism.
These two examples demonstrate how Bayer HealthCare fulfills its role as a global health care company. This holds true over its entire range of products: from the “wonder drug” Aspirin ® through innovative anti-cancer drugs and contraceptives to cutting-edge diagnostic techniques and animal health products.

 


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Bayer CropScience: Better seed for tomorrow’s harvests
Bayer CropScience has improved the oil profile of the canola plant so that the oil’s naturally healthy mix of fatty acids is maintained even upon heating. The company’s seed not only ensures a better-quality product but also raises yields. The high-yielding canola is a promising source of biofuel as well.
The innovative capability of the scientists at Bayer CropScience has already led to numerous milestones — and continues to do so in conventional crop protection, as it does in the areas of biotechnology and seed development.

 


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Bayer MaterialScience: Toward a shining future
Materials for visions — for Bayer MaterialScience this is both a claim and a commitment. One example is high-tech films. These are found everywhere: instrument panels, cellphone displays, forgery-proof identity cards. And in the future they’ll be able to shine around corners too.
Scientists at Bayer MaterialScience came up with an electroluminescent film that lights up when an electric current is applied — even when the film is bent, rolled or folded. Development of this exciting new material has been entrusted to start-up company lyttron Technology, a subsidiary of Bayer MaterialScience.
For designers this is undoubtedly a dream come true. And for Bayer MaterialScience — one of the world’s largest manufacturers of high-tech polymers — it’s another milestone in customer-oriented innovation. This company’s portfolio also includes polyurethane and polycarbonate products, along with materials for coatings, adhesives, insulating materials and sealants. With this spectrum of activities, the company has one overriding goal: to continually enhance the quality of life.

 


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2  Contents   Bayer Annual Report 2006
             
Chairman’s Letter/Board of Management        
 
           
  Chairman’s Letter        
  Board of Management        
 
           
Report of the Supervisory Board/Corporate Governance Report    
 
           
  Report of the Supervisory Board        
  Corporate Governance Report        
 
           
Investor Information        
 
           
  Investor Information        
 
           
Management Report        
 
           
  Overview of Sales, Earnings and Financial Position   57   Proposal for Distribution of the Profit
  Operating Environment in 2006   58   Employees
  Changes in Corporate Structure   59   Procurement and Distribution
  Performance by Subgroup and Segment   62   Research and Development
  Performance by Region   70   Sustainable Development
  Value Management   73   Corporate Social Responsibility
  Liquidity and Capital Resources   75   Compensation Report
  Earnings Performance   79   Risk Report
  Asset and Capital Structure   88   Subsequent Events
 
      89   Future Perspectives
 
           
Consolidated Financial Statements of the Bayer Group        
 
           
 
  Consolidated Financial Statements of the Bayer Group       Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements of the Bayer Group
  Management’s Statement of Responsibility for Financial Reporting   104   Key Data by Segment and Region
  Auditor’s Report   142   Notes to the Statements of Income
  Bayer Group Consolidated Statements of Income   150   Notes to the Balance Sheets
  Bayer Group Consolidated Balance Sheets   196   Notes to the Statements of Cash Flows
  Bayer Group Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows   198   Other Information
  Bayer Group Consolidated Statements of Recognized Income and Expense        
 
           
Further Information        
 
           
  Bayer News 2006/2007        
  Awards 2006/2007        
  Governance Bodies        
  Organization Chart        
  Group Leadership Circle        
  Glossary        
  Index        
  Global Commitment to Sustainability        
 
           
 
  Masthead        
 
  Five-Year Financial Summary        
 
  Financial Calendar and Bayer DVD        

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006  
Schering acquisition crowns a strong year
Dear Stockholders:
We look back with satisfaction on an eventful and successful 2006 – a landmark year for Bayer, both strategically and operationally. Our employees around the world have good reason to be proud of last year’s accomplishments:
  By acquiring Schering, Berlin, Germany, in what was the largest corporate transaction in Bayer’s history, we further optimized our product portfolio and successfully continued the Group’s realignment.
  We increased sales considerably, and operating performance ( ebit and ebitda before special items) was at an all-time high.
  In China, we inaugurated production facilities representing Bayer’s largest-ever capital expenditure project outside Germany.
The year’s outstanding event was our acquisition of Schering AG for approximately 17 billion. The Schering business ideally complements our existing pharmaceutical activities, and the new Bayer Schering Pharma AG is among the world’s leading suppliers of specialty pharmaceuticals. Our attractive product portfolio and well-stocked research and development pipeline offer excellent prospects for future success. We are convinced that Bayer Schering Pharma will strengthen our HealthCare business – and with it the entire Bayer Group – for the long term.
The integration process is proceeding as planned. We are well on track to achieve the communicated synergy goal of 700 million annually by 2009.
The Schering acquisition is founded on a balanced financing package of cash, borrowings and equity transactions. In addition to the mandatory convertible bond issued in March, we successfully placed 34 million new Bayer shares, worth 1.2 billion, in July.
We continued to focus our portfolio by divesting the diagnostics business and the subsidiaries H.C. Starck and Wolff Walsrode. The substantial proceeds of these transactions will help to reduce debt.
We also scored considerable success in our business operations:
  Sales rose 17 percent to 29 billion. Adjusted for currency fluctuations, the effect of the Schering acquisition and other portfolio changes, growth amounted to 5 percent.
  ebitda before special items climbed by 21 percent from the prior year, to 5.6 billion. That gave us an underlying ebitda margin of 19.3 percent, in line with our earnings guidance for 2006.
  ebit before special items moved ahead 14 percent to a record high of 3.5 billion, while ebit after special items advanced by 10 percent to 2.8 billion.

 


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4   Chairman’s Letter   Bayer Annual Report 2006
Of course we want you, our stockholders, to benefit from our economic success. We therefore propose to raise the dividend for 2006 by 5 percent to 1.00 per share.
Our good business performance is also reflected in the value of Bayer stock. The share price rose above 40 in 2006 for the first time in five years. Last year alone, our market capitalization grew by 20 percent to more than 31 billion. We will do all we can to ensure that this encouraging performance continues in the future.
Our success greatly depends on the skills and the dedication of more than 100,000 Bayer employees throughout the world, whom I would expressly like to thank on behalf of the entire Board of Management. Without their support, we could not have accomplished so much over the past year. We continue to rely on their high commitment and motivation.
Now let us look at the performance of the subgroups.
Sales of Bayer HealthCare rose considerably, thanks to the Schering acquisition and above-market growth in all divisions. We successfully introduced new products to the market and boosted the potential of existing products through expanded registrations.

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006   Chairman’s Letter   5
Including Schering’s sales prior to the acquisition date as well gave Bayer Schering Pharma total pro forma sales of more than 10 billion for 2006 – a very substantial revenue base.
Together with the Consumer Care, Diabetes Care and Animal Health divisions, which all hold leading international positions and also performed impressively last year, HealthCare will account for nearly 50 percent of Bayer Group sales in the future. As you can see, these activities are growing quickly and profitably.
Bayer CropScience stood up comparatively well to difficult market conditions in 2006. Our conventional crop protection business in particular had to contend with adverse weather conditions, heightening competition from generic products and the increasing cultivation of genetically modified crops. The company is implementing a new cost structure program to sustainably improve earnings. Innovation and growth prospects at Bayer CropScience are closely linked to the major opportunities presented by plant biotechnology. I for one believe that biotechnology is one of the most important technologies of the 21st century – and it will be of fundamental value to Bayer CropScience in mastering future challenges.
At Bayer MaterialScience, sales again developed well and earnings almost matched the high level of the previous year. Margins were squeezed primarily by the sharp rise in petrochemical feedstock and energy costs, along with unplanned production interruptions.
In polycarbonates we achieved a special milestone in 2006 , becoming the world’s number one supplier. This means Bayer is now the global leader in both polyurethanes and poly-carbonates.
In China we are implementing our biggest capital expenditure project to date outside Germany, with a volume of approximately US$ 1.8 billion through 2009. By building the facilities at the Bayer Integrated Site in Shanghai, Bayer MaterialScience has laid the foundation for further growth in the highly promising Asia-Pacific region, and China in particular.
We remain confident for 2007 and aim to boost Group sales by more than 10 percent. Adjusted for portfolio and currency effects, business should expand by about 5 percent. We plan to increase underlying ebitda by more than 10 percent as well, and also slightly improve our underlying ebitda margin.
Yet apart from the kind of corporate success that can be expressed in terms of sales and earnings, another aspect is very important to me. Our products are of great value to humankind and contribute substantially to improving the quality of life. They extend the health of people and animals, help ensure the quality and adequacy of food supplies, make cars safer, improve home living and contribute to climate protection. Thus the achievements of our employees are in evidence everywhere.

 


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6   Chairman’s Letter   Bayer Annual Report 2006
Our products save lives, improve conditions and are indispensable to many people. That is enormously motivating and a source of great satisfaction and pride.
In 2006 we also ran more than 300 activities that testify to our corporate social responsibility, ranging from training for young environmentalists around the world through programs for school students and talented scientists to the development of health care plans and projects to ease social hardship.
Bayer is mindful of its social responsibilities and is particularly committed to the principle of sustainability. We are a strong advocate of responsible corporate governance and business ethics, and we require strict observance of our corporate compliance program.
This year again, we want to live up to our mission statement “Bayer: Science For A Better Life.” And I’m already sure we can succeed – not least because we can count on an exceptionally dedicated workforce. An example is the response to our new “Triple-i” initiative (inspiration, ideas, innovation), which is helping to strengthen the innovation culture throughout the Bayer Group. Employees around the world had already submitted more than 1,900 business ideas by the end of 2006. Many of these proposals show how Bayer could help to solve problems in the future by developing new lines of business that are in keeping with our mission statement.
We believe one of our most important tasks is not just to ensure a strong current performance, but at the same time to create the conditions for long-term success. Last year we took a major stride in that direction – in the interest of the company, our employees and, of course, our stockholders.
In closing, I would like to thank you on behalf of the Board of Management for your trust and your support. We will do everything in our power to live up to the expectations placed in us for 2007.
Sincerely,
/s/ Werner Wennig
Werner Wenning
Chairman of the Board of Management of Bayer AG

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006   Board of Management   7
Board of Management
WERNER WENNING
Chairman of the Bayer AG Board of Management since April 2002. Born in 1946, Werner Wenning joined the company in 1966 as a commercial trainee. He held a number of positions with Bayer in Germany and abroad, serving as managing director of Bayer subsidiaries in Peru and Spain and later as Head of the Corporate Planning and Controlling Division. Wenning was appointed to the Board of Management as Chief Financial Officer in February 1997. Since September 2005 he has also been President of the German Chemical Industry Association.
KLAUS KüHN
Chief Financial Officer and responsible for the Europe region. Born in 1952, Klaus Kühn studied mathematics and physics at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany, gaining a mathematics degree in 1978. He also studied in the United States, where he obtained a Master of Business Administration. Kühn joined Bayer AG in 1998 as Head of the Finance Section, and shortly afterwards was made Head of the Group Finance Division. He was appointed to the Bayer AG Board of Management in May 2002.
DR. WOLFGANG PLISCHKE
Responsible for Innovation, Technology and Environment and the Asia-Pacific region. Born in 1951, Wolfgang Plischke studied biology at the University of Hohenheim, Germany. After gaining his Ph.D., Plischke began his career with Bayer in 1980, first joining the subsidiary Miles Diagnostics. After holding a number of positions in Germany and abroad, he became Head of the Pharmaceuticals Business Group in North America in 2000, and two years later took over responsibility for the Pharmaceuticals Business Group of Bayer AG. Plischke was appointed to the Bayer AG Board of Management in March 2006.
DR. RICHARD POTT
The member responsible for Strategy and Human Resources and the Americas, Africa and Middle East regions, Dr. Richard Pott is also Bayer AG’s Labor Director. Born in 1953, Richard Pott studied physics at the University of Cologne, Germany, where he obtained his Ph.D. In 1984 he joined the company’s Central Research Division. After holding various positions in the Corporate Staff Division he became Head of the former Specialty Products Business Group in 1999. Pott was appointed to the Bayer AG Board of Management in May 2002.

 


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8   Board of Management   Bayer Annual Report 2006

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006   Report of the Supervisory Board   9
Report of the Supervisory Board
Dear Stockholders:
During 2006 the Supervisory Board monitored the conduct of the company’s business and acted in an advisory capacity. We performed these functions on the basis of detailed written and oral reports received from the Board of Management. In addition, the Chairman of the Supervisory Board and the Chairman of the Board of Management maintained a constant exchange of information and ideas. In this way the Supervisory Board was kept continuously informed about the company’s intended business strategy, corporate planning (including financial, investment and human resources planning), earnings performance, the state of the business and the situation in the company and the Group as a whole.
The documents relating to Board of Management decisions or actions which – by law or under the articles of incorporation or the rules of procedure – required the approval of the Supervisory Board were inspected by the Supervisory Board at its plenary meetings, sometimes after preparatory work by the committees. In certain cases the Supervisory Board gave its approval on the basis of documents circulated to its members. The meetings of the Supervisory Board were regularly attended by the members of the Board of Management. The Supervisory Board was involved in decisions of material importance to the company. We discussed at length the business trends described in the reports from the Board of Management and the prospects for the development of the Bayer Group as a whole, the individual organizational units and the principal affiliated companies in Germany and abroad. During 2006 there were six plenary meetings of the Supervisory Board. On several further occasions, decisions relating to specific acquisition or divestiture projects were made after circulation of documents to the members. No member of the Supervisory Board attended fewer than half of the meetings.
Principal topics discussed by the Supervisory Board
A major focus of the Supervisory Board’s deliberations in 2006 was the acquisition of Schering AG (now Bayer Schering Pharma AG). At an extraordinary meeting on March 23, 2006, the Supervisory Board considered the acquisition project and consented to the submission of a takeover offer.
The Supervisory Board also discussed and resolved upon measures to finance this project through debt and equity issuances and divestments of subsidiaries. This included the conclusion of agreements on a bridge financing and a syndicated loan of 7 billion each and an equity raising of up to 4 billion.
The Supervisory Board formed a committee from among its members to which decision-making powers in connection with the Schering AG acquisition project and certain related financing measures were transferred to the extent legally permissible, in order to allow a rapid response to new developments. The members elected to this committee were Manfred Schneider, Hubertus Schmoldt, Ekkehard Schulz and Thomas de Win.

 


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10   Report of the Supervisory Board   Bayer Annual Report 2006
The Board of Management reported in detail at the Supervisory Board meetings about the steps necessary to integrate Bayer Schering Pharma AG, including the conclusion of a domination and profit and loss transfer agreement and the squeeze-out of outside stockholders and transfer of their shares to the principal stockholder.
At an extraordinary meeting on June 29, 2006, the Supervisory Board consented to the sale of the global diagnostics business to Siemens. The Board of Management presented status reports on other projects to develop the Group’s portfolio, such as the sale of the subsidiaries Wolff Walsrode and H.C. Starck and the interest in GE Bayer Silicones, and the acquisition of the consumer care business of Topsun. These projects received the Supervisory Board’s approval.
At the meeting in December 2006, the Board of Management presented its operational, financial and balance sheet planning for the years 2007 through 2009, which was the subject of detailed discussion.

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006   Report of the Supervisory Board   11
Work of the committees
The Presidial Committee of the Supervisory Board, acting on authorizations given by the plenary meeting, made decisions at four telephone conferences relating to the issuance of a bond under the existing emtn program in May 2006 and the capital increase out of authorized capital in July 2006. The Presidial Committee did not need to convene during 2006 in its capacity as the mediation committee pursuant to Section 27, Paragraph 3 of the German Codetermination Act.
The Audit Committee met four times during the year, concerning itself in particular with the company’s and the Group’s financial reporting, including the annual report to the u.s. Securities and Exchange Commission on Form 20-f. Another area of focus was the Group’s risk management system. The Audit Committee solicited and discussed verbal reports from the Head of Corporate Auditing and the Group Compliance Officer. The Audit Committee also set the budget for the services of the external auditor and discussed with the auditor the main areas of the audit for the 2006 fiscal year. It also discussed measures to implement various requirements of the u.s. Sarbanes-Oxley Act including, in particular, the submission of an assessment, attested to by the auditor, regarding the internal controls over financial reporting introduced in the Group pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The auditor was present at all the meetings of the Audit Committee, reporting in detail on the audit work and auditor review of interim financial statements.
The Human Resources Committee convened on two occasions. It dealt with matters relating to the remuneration of the Board of Management and with the renewal of the contracts of Werner Wenning, Klaus Kühn and Richard Pott.
The committee formed in connection with the Schering AG acquisition project held five telephone conferences and made decisions. It considered the conditions for the purchase of shares, compensation offers to stockholders, and the issuance of a mandatory convertible bond in April 2006 as part of the related financing package.
The meetings and decisions of the committees were prepared on the basis of reports and other information provided by the Board of Management, whose members regularly attended the committee meetings. Reports on the committee meetings were presented at the plenary meetings of the Supervisory Board.
Corporate governance
The Supervisory Board dealt with the ongoing development of corporate governance at Bayer, taking into account the amendments made to the German Corporate Governance Code in June 2006. In December 2006 the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board issued a new Declaration of Conformity, which is also contained in the Corporate Governance Report on page 19 forming part of this Annual Report.
At its meeting in December 2006, the Supervisory Board reviewed the efficiency of its own work and came to a positive conclusion.

 


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12   Report of the Supervisory Board   Bayer Annual Report 2006
Financial statements and audits
The financial statements and management report of Bayer AG were drawn up according to the requirements of the German Commercial Code, while the consolidated financial statements and management report of the Bayer Group were prepared according to the principles of the International Financial Reporting Standards (ifrs).
The financial statements of Bayer AG, the consolidated financial statements of the Bayer Group, the management report of Bayer AG and the management report of the Bayer Group have been examined by the auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers Aktiengesellschaft, Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft, Essen. The conduct of the audit is explained in the Independent Auditor’s Report. The auditor finds that Bayer has complied with the requirements of the German Commercial Code and the International Financial Reporting Standards, respectively, and issues an unqualified opinion on the financial statements of Bayer AG and the consolidated financial statements of the Bayer Group. The financial statements and management report of Bayer AG, the consolidated financial statements and management report of the Bayer Group, and the audit reports were submitted to all members of the Supervisory Board. They were discussed in detail by the Audit Committee and at a plenary meeting of the Supervisory Board. The auditor submitted a report on both occasions and was present during the discussions.
We examined the financial statements and management report of Bayer AG, the proposal for distribution of the profit, and the consolidated financial statements and management report of the Bayer Group. We found no objections, thus we concur with the result of the audit. We have approved the financial statements of Bayer AG and the consolidated financial statements of the Bayer Group prepared by the Board of Management. The financial statements of Bayer AG are thus confirmed. We are in agreement with the management reports of Bayer AG and the Bayer Group and, in particular, with the assessment of the future development of the enterprise. We also concur with the dividend policy and the decisions concerning earnings retention by the company. We assent to the proposal for distribution of the profit, which provides for payment of a dividend of 1.00 per share.
Information pursuant to Section 289, Paragraph 4 and Section 315, Paragraph 4 of the German Commercial Code
At its meeting on March 12, 2007, the Supervisory Board considered the information, and the report thereon, provided in the management report pursuant to Section 289, Paragraph 4 and Section 315, Paragraph 4 of the German Commercial Code. Reference is hereby made to this information, and the report thereon, to be found in the management report on page 56 ff., which the Supervisory Board has reviewed and with which it fully concurs.
The Supervisory Board would like to thank the Board of Management and all employees for their dedication and hard work in 2006.
Leverkusen, March 2007
For the Supervisory Board
/s/ Manfred Schneider
Dr. Manfred Schneider
Chairman

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006   Corporate Governance Report   13
Bayer again in compliance with the German Corporate Governance Code*
Bayer has always placed great importance on responsible corporate governance and will continue to do so. Last year the company renewed its declaration that it is in full compliance with the recommendations of the German Corporate Governance Code.
In 2006 the Board of Management and Supervisory Board again addressed the question of code compliance, particularly in light of the new recommendations issued on June 12. The resulting Declaration of Conformity (see page 19 ) was published in December 2006 and posted on Bayer’s website along with previous declarations.
Supervisory Board: oversight and control functions
The role of the 20-member Supervisory Board is to oversee and advise the Board of Management. Under the German Codetermination Act, half the members of the Supervisory Board are elected by the stockholders, and half by the company’s employees. The Supervisory Board is directly involved in decisions on matters of fundamental importance to the company and confers with the Board of Management on the company’s strategic alignment. It also holds regular discussions with the Board of Management on the company’s business strategy and status of its implementation.
The Chairman of the Supervisory Board coordinates its work and presides over the meetings. Through regular discussions with the Board of Management, the Supervisory Board is kept constantly informed of business policy, corporate planning and strategy. The annual budget and the consolidated financial statements of Bayer AG and the Bayer Group are submitted to the Supervisory Board to obtain its approval, which must also take the auditors’ report into account. Details are provided in the Report of the Supervisory Board on page 10 ff. of this Annual Report. The committees set up by the Supervisory Board operate in compliance with the German Stock Corporation Act, the German Corporate Governance Code, the u.s. Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the rules of the New York Stock Exchange. The committees of the Supervisory Board are as follows:
Presidial Committee: This comprises two stockholder representatives and two employee representatives. Its main task is to serve as the mediation committee pursuant to the German Codetermination Act. It submits proposals to the Supervisory Board on the appointment of members of the Board of Management if the necessary two-thirds majority is not achieved in the first vote at a plenary meeting. The Supervisory Board has also delegated certain decision-making powers relating to capital measures to the Presidial Committee.
 
* report pursuant to Section 3.10 of the German Corporate Governance Code    
www.bayer.com
> Bayer Group
> Corporate Governance

 


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14   Corporate Governance Report   Bayer Annual Report 2006
Audit Committee: The Audit Committee, comprising three stockholder representatives and three employee representatives, meets four times a year. Its tasks include examining the company’s internal and external accounting and the quarterly reports and annual financial statements prepared by the Board of Management. On the basis of the auditors’ report on the annual financial statements, the Audit Committee submits proposals concerning their approval by the full Supervisory Board. The Audit Committee also oversees the company’s internal control system along with the procedures used to identify, track and manage risk, and monitors compliance with laws and statutory regulations.
The company’s Corporate Auditing department reports regularly to the Audit Committee, which also is responsible for the company’s relationship with the external auditors. The Audit Committee prepares the awarding of the audit contract to the audit firm appointed by the Annual Stockholders’ Meeting, suggests areas of focus for the audit and determines the auditors’ remuneration. It also monitors the independence, qualifications, rotation and efficiency of the auditors.
The Supervisory Board of Bayer AG has designated Dr. Manfred Schneider as an Audit Committee Financial Expert pursuant to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
Human Resources Committee: On this committee, too, there is parity of representation between stockholders and employees. It consists of the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, one other stockholder representative and two employee representatives. The Human Resources Committee prepares the personnel decisions to be made by the Supervisory Board. In particular, it concludes service contracts with the members of the Board of Management on behalf of the Supervisory Board. It also provides advice on long-term succession planning for the Board of Management.
Bayer Schering Pharma Committee: The Supervisory Board formed a committee from among its members to which decision-making powers in connection with the Schering AG acquisition project and certain related financing measures were transferred to the extent legally permissible, in order to allow a rapid response to new developments.
Compensation report
The compensation of the Supervisory Board is based on the provisions of the Articles of Incorporation, the current version of which was adopted by the stockholders at the Annual Stockholders’ Meeting on April 29, 2005. This provides that, in addition to reimbursement of their expenses, each member of the Supervisory Board receives fixed annual remuneration of 60,000 and a variable annual remuneration component. The variable remuneration component is based on corporate performance in terms of the gross cash flow reported in the Group financial statements for the fiscal year. The members of the Supervisory Board receive 2,000 for every 50,000,000 or part thereof by which the gross cash flow exceeds 3,100,000,000, but the variable component for each member may not exceed 30,000.
In accordance with the provisions of the German Corporate Governance Code, additional remuneration is paid to the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Supervisory Board and for chairing and membership of committees. The Chairman of the Supervisory Board receives three times the basic remuneration, while the Vice Chairman receives one-and-a-half times the basic remuneration. Members of the Supervisory Board who are also members of a committee receive an additional one quarter of the amount, with those chairing a committee receiving a further quarter. However, no member of the Supervisory Board may receive total remuneration exceeding three times the basic remuneration. If changes are made to the Supervisory Board and its committees during the fiscal year, members receive remuneration on a pro-rated basis. The following table shows the remuneration of individual members of the Supervisory Board for fiscal 2006. No remuneration or benefits were paid for personal services, in particular, the provision of consultancy or intermediary services.

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006   Corporate Governance Report   15
                         
    Fixed     Variable        
Remuneration of the Members of the Supervisory Board   Remuneration     Remuneration     Total  
 
                       
 
                 
Dr. Paul Achleitner
    75,000.00       37,500.00       112,500.00  
 
                 
Dr. Josef Ackermann
    60,000.00       30,000.00       90,000.00  
 
                 
Andreas Becker
    60,000.00       30,000.00       90,000.00  
 
                 
Karl-Josef Ellrich
    75,000.00       37,500.00       112,500.00  
 
                 
Dr. Thomas Fischer
    75,000.00       37,500.00       112,500.00  
 
                 
Erhard Gipperich
    8,917.81       4,458.91       13,376.72  
 
                 
Peter Hausmann
    50,958.90       25,479.45       76,438.35  
 
                 
Thomas Hellmuth
    60,000.00       30,000.00       90,000.00  
 
                 
Prof. Dr.-Ing. e. h. Hans-Olaf Henkel
    75,000.00       37,500.00       112,500.00  
 
                 
Reiner Hoffmann
    13,479.45       6,739.73       20,219.18  
 
                 
Gregor Jüsten
    54,904.11       27,452.05       82,356.16  
 
                 
Dr. rer. pol. Klaus Kleinfeld
    60,000.00       30,000.00       90,000.00  
 
                 
Dr. h. c. Martin Kohlhaussen
    105,000.00       52,500.00       157,500.00  
 
                 
John Christian Kornblum
    60,000.00       30,000.00       90,000.00  
 
                 
Petra Kronen
    75,000.00       37,500.00       112,500.00  
 
                 
Hubertus Schmoldt
    86,671.23       43,335.62       130,006.85  
 
                 
Dr. Manfred Schneider (Chairman)
    180,000.00       90,000.00       270,000.00  
 
                 
Dieter Schulte
    42,904.11       21,452.05       64,356.16  
 
                 
Dr.-Ing. Ekkehard D. Schulz
    71,671.23       35,835.62       107,506.85  
 
                 
Dipl.-Ing. Dr.-Ing. e. h. Jürgen Weber
    60,000.00       30,000.00       90,000.00  
 
                 
Siegfried Wendlandt
    24,246.58       12,123.29       36,369.87  
 
                 
Thomas de Win (Vice Chairman)
    124,273.97       62,136.99       186,410.96  
 
                 
Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker
    60,000.00       30,000.00       90,000.00  
 
                 
Legislation on the disclosure of the compensation paid to members of the Board of Management came into force in Germany during the fiscal year. It specifies where such compensation is to be disclosed and the content of individual disclosures. In accordance with the provisions of this law, the compensation of the Board of Management is presented and published uniformly in a compensation report in the management reports of Bayer AG and the Bayer Group. To avoid dual presentation of the data, this Corporate Governance Report explicitly adopts, and makes reference to, the presentation in the management reports of Bayer AG and the Bayer Group (see page 76 ff.). This also applies to the description of stock option programs for the Board of Management (see page 76 ff.) and employees (see Note [26.1] to the financial statements (page 177 ff.).
Personal liability in place of a deductible
With regard to the recommendation in the German Corporate Governance Code that a deductible be agreed for any d&o (directors’ and officers’ liability) insurance, the company’s d&o insurance does not cover intentional breach of duty and thus there is no deductible.
Instead, personal declarations have been given by the members of the Board of Management and Supervisory Board that, should they cause damage to the company or third parties through gross negligence (by German standards) in the performance of their duties, they undertake to pay for such damage up to the equivalent of half their total annual remuneration for the year in which such damage occurs. The members of the Supervisory Board undertake to pay for such damage, if caused by them, up to the equivalent of the variable portion of their respective annual remuneration as Supervisory Board members for the relevant year.

 


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16   Corporate Governance Report   Bayer Annual Report 2006
Disclosure of securities transactions by members of the Supervisory Board and Board of Management
To comply with Section 15a of the German Securities Trading Act, members of the Board of Management and Supervisory Board and their close relatives are required to disclose all transactions involving the purchase or sale of Bayer stock where such transactions total 5,000 or more in a calendar year. Bayer publishes details of such transactions immediately on its website and also notifies the German Financial Supervisory Authority accordingly. No reportable securities transactions were made in fiscal 2006 .
According to information filed with the company by members of the Board of Management and Supervisory Board, their total holdings of Bayer stock and related financial instruments amounted to less than 1 percent of the issued stock on the closing date for the financial statements.
Systematic monitoring of all business activities
Bayer has an internal control system in place to ensure early identification of any business or financial risks and enable it to manage such risks so as to minimize any impact on the achievement of its commercial objectives. The control system is designed to ensure timely and accurate accounting for all business processes and the constant availability of reliable data on the company’s financial position. Where acquisitions are made during a fiscal year, we aim to bring the acquired units’ internal control systems into line with those of the Bayer Group as quickly as possible. However, the control and risk management system cannot protect the company from all business risks. In particular, it cannot provide absolute protection against losses or fraudulent actions.
Corporate Compliance Program
Our corporate activity is governed by national and local laws and statutes that place a range of obligations on the Bayer Group and its employees throughout the world. Bayer manages its business responsibly in compliance with the statutory and regulatory requirements of the countries in which it operates.
The Board of Management has also issued guidelines to support legal compliance. These are summarized in the “Program for Legal Compliance and Corporate Responsibility at Bayer” (Corporate Compliance Program), which contains binding rules on complying with international trade law, adhering to the principle of fair competition and concluding contracts with business partners on fair terms.
To avoid conflicts of interest, every employee is required to separate corporate and private interests. The program also lays down clear rules for employee integrity toward the company and the responsible handling of insider information.
Compliance Committees have been established at Bayer AG and each of its subgroups and service companies. Each Compliance Committee includes at least one legal counsel.
The role of these committees is to initiate and monitor systematic, business-specific training and other measures necessary to ensure implementation of the Corporate Compliance Program. They are also responsible for investigating any suspected violations of the Corporate Compliance Program and, if necessary, taking steps to rectify them. All Compliance Committees report at least once a year to a coordination committee chaired by the Chief Financial Officer on any violations notified to them, the investigations carried out and their outcomes, and any corrective or disciplinary action taken. They also report on the systematic training and implementation measures they have initiated to foster compliance.

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006   Corporate Governance Report   17
All Bayer employees are required to immediately report any violations of the Compliance Program. In Germany, a telephone hotline to a law firm has been set up to allow this to be done anonymously.
Common values and leadership principles
The mission statement published in 2004 supplements the Corporate Compliance Program and sets out the principles underlying Bayer’s corporate strategy. It outlines the foundation of our corporate philosophy and activity to stockholders, customers, employees and the general public. Common values and leadership principles are considered essential for every employee’s daily work. The values include a will to succeed; a passion for our stakeholders; integrity, openness and honesty; respect for people and nature; and the sustainability of our actions. The assessment of managers’ performance on the basis of defined leadership principles helps to ensure adherence to these values throughout the enterprise.
Detailed reporting
To maximize transparency, we provide regular and timely information on the company’s position and significant changes in business activities for stockholders, financial analysts, stockholders’ associations, the media and the general public. Bayer complies with the recommendations of the Corporate Governance Code by publishing reports on business trends, earnings and the Group’s financial position four times a year. The annual consolidated financial statements of the Bayer Group are published within 90 days following the end of the fiscal year. In addition to the annual report, quarterly reports, news conferences and analysts’ meetings, Bayer publishes the reports on Form 20-f (annual report) and Form 6-k (e.g. quarterly report) as required by the u.s. Securities and Exchange Commission (sec). Bayer also uses the Internet as a platform for timely disclosure of information, including details of the dates of major publications and events such as the annual and quarterly reports and the Annual Stockholders’ Meeting.
In line with the principle of fair disclosure, we provide the same information to all stockholders and all main target groups. All significant new facts are disclosed immediately. Stockholders also have timely access to the information that Bayer publishes in foreign countries in compliance with local stock market regulations.
In addition to our regular reporting, we issue ad-hoc statements on developments that might not otherwise become publicly known but have the potential to materially affect the price of Bayer stock.
Investor protection in compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
Since Bayer stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (nyse), the Bayer Group also has to comply with certain u.s. capital market laws, including the rules of the u.s. stock exchange regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (sec) , and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act adopted in 2002. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires companies to establish and maintain a system of internal controls over financial reporting to protect investors and maintain their confidence in corporate accounting, management and oversight.
At the end of 2003, Bayer initiated a Group-wide project to implement an internal control system for financial reporting in order to ensure compliance with Section 404 (Management Assessment of Internal Controls) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The main focus of this project was to ensure uniform Group-wide procedures to document material business processes, identify risks affecting financial reporting, audit the effectiveness of internal controls and perform a central assessment of the internal control system for the Bayer Group. Compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act resulted in a substantial increase in the documentation and auditing workload in 2006.
www.investor.bayer.com
> Events
> Calendar

 


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18   Corporate Governance Report   Bayer Annual Report 2006
A separate department was established at the holding company in 2005 to define and introduce Group-wide standards for the internal control system (ics) and to coordinate and monitor their implementation at Group companies. A system applied throughout the Group ensures uniform and audit-proof documentation and archiving of all ics -relevant business processes, together with the associated risks and controls. The management assesses the effectiveness of the controls during the year. The findings are documented and presented transparently at Group level in a central it system. These data are the basis for the central assessment of the Group’s internal control system at year end.
The management of Group companies holds local responsibility for ensuring and overseeing compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. That includes in particular providing guidance and support for line functions on establishing, maintaining and upgrading their internal control systems to align them with Group-wide ics standards. Many companies in the Bayer Group have appointed ics managers to support local management in these tasks.
The Bayer Group’s internal control system is designed to enable the Board of Management and senior executives to assess the reliability of financial reporting with a sufficient degree of assurance. As of December 31, 2006, the Board of Management and senior executives assessed the effectiveness of the internal control system on the basis of the coso framework (Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission) for internal control systems. With reference to these criteria, the Board of Management established that as of December 31, 2006, the Bayer Group had an effective system of internal controls over financial reporting.
Declaration by the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board of Bayer AG
concerning the German Corporate Governance Code (June 12, 2006 version) pursuant to Section 161 of the German Stock Corporation Act *
Under section 161 of the German Stock Corporation Act, the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board of Bayer AG are required to issue an annual declaration that the company has been, and is, in compliance with the recommendations of the “Government Commission on the German Corporate Governance Code” as published by the Federal Ministry of Justice in the official section of the electronic Federal Gazette (Bundesanzeiger), or to advise of any recommendations that have not been, or are not being, applied. The declaration pursuant to section 161 of the Stock Corporation Act shall be available to shareholders at all times. An annual declaration was last issued in December 2005.
The Board of Management and the Supervisory Board declared in July 2006 that Section 7.1.2. Sentence 3 of the Code, according to which interim reports are to be publicly accessible within 45 days of the end of the reporting period, would not be complied with for the interim reports as of June 30, 2006 or September 30, 2006 because of the additional workload involved in including Schering AG and its subsidiaries in the consolidated financial statements of the Bayer Group.
With respect to the past, the following declaration refers to the June 2, 2005 version of the Code. With respect to present and future corporate governance practices at Bayer AG, the following declaration refers to the recommendations in the June 12, 2006 version of the Code.
The Board of Management and the Supervisory Board of Bayer AG hereby declare that the company is in compliance with the recommendations of the “Government Commission on the German Corporate Governance Code” as published by the Federal Ministry of Justice in the official section of the electronic Federal Gazette and has been in compliance – except as stated in the supplementary declaration of July 2006 – since issuance of the last declaration of conformity in December 2005.
         
Leverkusen, December 2006
       
For the Board of Management:
      For the Supervisory Board:
 
       
-s- Wenning
  -s- Kühn   -s- DR. Schneider
Wenning
  Kühn   Dr. Schneider
 
*   This is an English translation of a German document. The German document is the official and controlling version, and this English translation in no event modifies, interprets or limits the official German version.

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006  
Acquisition of Schering gives Bayer stock further impetus
Bayer stock continued to appreciate in 2006, posting an overall performance of 18.3 percent. Investor interest focused on the acquisition of Schering. Dividend rises to 1.00 per share.
2006: a volatile stock market year ends on a positive note
The German equity market proved volatile in fiscal 2006. The dax initially continued on the previous year’s upward path. However, concern about inflation and interest rates in the United States triggered a global market downtrend in May and June, with substantial falls in some stocks. Sound corporate profits and buoyant mergers and acquisitions activity revived investor confidence at the start of the second half and ushered in a new rally. The dax ended the year up 22.0 percent at 6,597 points.
Performance of Bayer stock exceeds 18 percent
Bayer stock again developed very well, its price gaining 15.2 percent on the year. Including the dividend of 0.95 per share paid in 2006, our stock achieved a performance of 18.3 percent. This was only just below the dax’s performance but slightly above the Dow Jones euro stoxx 50sm index, in which Bayer is also included.
During the year the share price was driven mainly by factors relating to our acquisition of Schering, Berlin, Germany. The announcement on March 23, 2006 of our intention to acquire Schering triggered a period of turbulent trading in Bayer stock, with a very high turnover at times. The tide turned in mid-June 2006, when it became increasingly clear that our public takeover offer would succeed, and Bayer shares went on from there to gain over 30 percent by year-end.
A 1.2 billion capital increase as part of the financing of this acquisition raised the number of shares in issue by 34 million to 764.34 million. Market capitalization increased by a total of 5.3 billion (+20.5 percent) on the year, to 31.1 billion.
This capital increase and the effect of the 2.3 billion mandatory convertible bond launched in April 2006 have to be taken into account in calculating earnings per share for fiscal 2006. In computing earnings per share, ordinary shares to be issued when the conversion rights from this bond issue are exercised have to be counted together with already issued shares, so basic and diluted earnings per share are identical. Details on the calculation of earnings per share are given on page 152.

 


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20   Investor Information   Bayer Annual Report 2006
(PERFORMANCE GRAPH)

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006   Investor Information   21
                         
Bayer Stock Data         2005     2006  
Earnings per share
          2.19       2.22  
 
                 
Core earnings per share1
          2.84       3.24  
 
                 
Cash flow per share
          4.26       5.12  
 
                 
Equity per share
          15.28       16.81  
 
                 
Dividend per share
          0.95       1.00  
 
                 
 
                       
 
                 
Year-end price2
          35.29       40.66  
 
                 
High for the year2
          35.92       40.92  
 
                 
Low for the year2
          22.02       30.56  
 
                 
 
                       
 
                 
Total dividend payment
  million       694       764  
 
                 
Shares entitled to the dividend (Dec. 31)
  million       730.34       764.34  
 
                 
Market capitalization (Dec. 31)
  billion       25.8       31.1  
 
                 
Average daily trading volume
  million       4.1       5.6  
 
                 
 
                       
 
                 
Price/earnings ratio2
            16.1       18.3  
 
                 
Price/cash flow ratio2
            8.3       7.9  
 
                 
Dividend yield
    %       2.7       2.5  
 
                 
 
1   For details on the calculation of core earnings per share, see page 25.
 
2   XETRA closing prices; Source: Bloomberg
Proposed dividend of 1.00 per share
The Board of Management and Supervisory Board will propose to the Annual Stockholders’ Meeting that that the dividend be raised by 5.3 percent to 1.00 per share. The higher per-share amount and the larger number of shares due to the capital increase boost the payout by 10.1 percent to 764 million. The dividend yield calculated on the year-end price amounts to 2.5 percent.
Despite the substantial expenditures for the Schering acquisition, this dividend is intended to ensure that stockholders participate in the success Bayer experienced in 2006 and demonstrate the confidence of the Board of Management and Supervisory Board in the Group’s future development.
Debt issues support financing of Schering acquisition
Bayer’s borrowings generally take the form of bond issues under the company’s European Medium Term Notes (emtn) program. The larger Bayer AG bonds launched under this program are included in the major bond indices in light of their benchmark issue volumes and their liquidity. In addition, the Group issues innovative, separately documented debenture types and u.s. bonds under Rule 144a.
In 2006 Bayer offered investors several attractive issues. As part of the financing package for the Schering acquisition, a 2.3 billion mandatory convertible bond was issued by Bayer Capital Corp. in April 2006 and placed with institutional investors. This subordinated bond, which is guaranteed by Bayer AG, has a coupon of 6.625% . It was the largest mandatory convertible bond placement in Europe to date. Investors may convert the bond into shares of Bayer AG during the term of the bond, which runs until June 2009. If they have not done so by then, the bond will automatically convert into shares. Because of its structure, the rating agencies Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s treat the mandatory convertible bond entirely as equity and do not regard it as debt for credit rating purposes. For information on Bayer’s credit rating, see section on financial strategy on page 52.

 


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22   Investor Information   Bayer Annual Report 2006
(PERFORMANCE GRAPH)

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006   Investor Information  23
     
In May 2006 Bayer AG issued three bonds under its emtn program, again to help finance the acquisition of Schering. The first is a three-year floating rate note in a nominal amount of 1.6 billion which bears interest at 0.225 percent above the 3-month Euribor rate. The second is a 1 billion issue with a seven-year term and a coupon of 4.5 percent. The third, a sterling (gbp) issue, has a coupon of 5.625 percent and a maturity of 13 years. In December 2006 Bayer utilized the very favorable capital market conditions to increase this issue by gbp 100 million to a total of gbp 350 million, giving Bayer’s first-ever sterling bond benchmark volume and appealing to investors in a further currency zone. The issue was fully swapped into euros.
The hybrid bond in the nominal amount of 1.3 billion issued in 2005 was reclassified by Standard & Poor’s as a result of a change to that agency’s rating methodology. In computing debt indicators, s&p now treats 50 percent of this issue as equity and 50 percent as debt. Moody’s continues to treat 75 percent as equity.
Investor relations activities focus on the acquisition
Investors’ interest in 2006 centered on the acquisition of Schering. Bayer’s management and investor relations team met with analysts and investors at roadshows and investor conferences on nearly 60 days.
The principal topics addressed at these meetings, apart from the strategic reasons for acquiring Schering, were the late-stage projects in Bayer’s pharmaceuticals development pipeline, the restructuring of CropScience, trends on the polymers markets and the impact of the Schering acquisition on Bayer’s credit rating.
An innovative conference format entitled “Meet Management,” which was introduced in May, proved especially attractive. Representatives of the investment community were invited to Leverkusen for intensive small-group discussions with members of the management boards of our holding company and subgroups about the performance of the Bayer Group and its subsidiaries.
We also set up a hotline on the Schering acquisition to give private investors full and timely information on matters relating to the tender of their shares. The Internet was used as an additional information channel, particularly to reach individual stockholders. Wherever practicable, all conference calls and meetings are streamed live on the Internet to ensure their accessibility to all interested parties.
www.investor.bayer.com

 


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24  Investor Information   Bayer Annual Report 2006
     
Calculation of core earnings per share
Earnings per share according to ifrs are affected by the purchase price allocation (see page 136 ff.) and other special factors. To enhance comparability, we also determine core net income from continuing operations after elimination of the amortization of intangible assets, asset write-downs (including any impairment losses), special items in ebitda and extraordinary factors affecting income from investments in affiliated companies (such as divestment gains or write-downs), including the related tax effects.
The calculation of earnings per share in accordance with ifrs is explained in the notes to the financial statements on page 152. Adjusted core net income, core earnings per share and core ebit are not defined in the International Financial Reporting Standards. Therefore they should be regarded as supplementary information rather than stand-alone indicators.
                 
Calculation of Core EBIT and Core Earnings per Share   2005     2006  
million  
               
EBIT as per income statement
    2,514       2,762  
 
           
Amortization and write-downs of intangible assets
    550       734  
 
           
Write-downs of property, plant and equipment
    55       107  
 
           
Special items (other than write-downs)
    480       909  
 
           
Core EBIT
    3,599       4,512  
 
           
Non-operating result (as per income statement)
    (602 )     (782 )
 
           
Extraordinary income/loss from investments in affiliated companies
          (236 )
 
           
Income taxes (as per income statement)
    (538 )     (454 )
 
           
Tax adjustment
    (386 )     (531 )
 
           
Income after taxes attributable to minority interest (as per income statement)
    2       (12 )
 
           
Core net income from continuing operations
    2,075       2,497  
 
           
Financing expenses for the mandatory convertible bond, net of tax effects
          72  
 
           
Adjusted core net income
    2,075       2,569  
 
           
 
               
Shares  
               
Weighted average number of issued ordinary shares*
    730,341,920       746,456,988  
 
           
Potential shares to be issued upon conversion of the mandatory convertible bond
          45,300,595  
 
           
Adjusted weighted average total number of issued and potential
               
 
           
ordinary shares
    730,341,920       791,757,583  
 
           
Core earnings per share from continuing operations ()
    2.84       3.24  
 
           
 
*   including new shares from the capital increase on a pro-rated basis

 


Table of Contents

Management Report   Bayer Annual Report 2006
     
 
à  Overview of Sales, Earnings and Financial Position
 
à  Operating Environment in 2006
 
à  Changes in Corporate Structure
 
à  Performance by Subgroup and Segment
 
à  Performance by Region
 
à  Value Management
 
à  Liquidity and Capital Resources
 
à  Earnings Performance
 
à  Asset and Capital Structure
 
à  Proposal for Distribution of the Profit
 
à  Employees
 
à  Procurement and Distribution
 
à  Research and Development
 
à  Sustainable Development
 
à  Corporate Social Responsibility
 
à  Compensation Report
 
à  Risk Report
 
à  Subsequent Events
 
à  Future Perspectives
 
à  Economic outlook and market opportunities in 2007
 
à  Business strategy
 
à  Bayer Group sales and earnings forecast
 
à  Subgroups’ sales and earnings forecasts
 

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006   Management Report   25
     
2006 a record year for Bayer
Pharmaceuticals business decisively strengthened
  Sales up 17 percent to 29 billion
 
  Operating performance at an all-time high
ebitda before special items climbs 21 percent to 5.6 billion
ebit before special items advances 14 percent to 3.5 billion
 
  Group net income rises 5 percent to 1.7 billion
 
  Earning power expected to further improve in 2007
Overview of Sales, Earnings and Financial Position
Bayer had a very successful year in 2006, both operationally and strategically. In June, we decisively strengthened our pharmaceuticals business with the acquisition of Schering AG, Berlin, Germany. This is the most significant corporate transaction in Bayer’s history and gives us leading market positions in specialty pharmaceuticals. We successfully implemented our divestiture program with the sale of our Diagnostics Division and the H.C. Starck and Wolff Walsrode activities.
We improved the performance data of our businesses, in some cases substantially, compared to the previous year.
Sales of the Bayer Group grew 17.2 percent to 29.0 billion, from 24.7 billion in 2005. The total for 2006 includes 3.1 billion in revenues from the Schering business in the period from June 23, 2006. Adjusted for currency and portfolio effects, Group sales rose by 5.2 percent, with HealthCare and MaterialScience up 10.0 and 7.2 percent, respectively, and CropScience down 2.3 percent, from the prior year.
                 
Change in Sales   2005     2006  
%            
Volumes
    0       +5  
 
           
Prices
    +7       0  
 
           
Exchange rates
    +1       0  
 
           
Portfolio changes
    +10       +12  
 
           
ebitda before special items rose by 21.3 percent to the record level of 5,584 million, from 4,602 million in 2005, yielding an underlying ebitda margin of 19.3 percent in line with our 2006 target. HealthCare saw a 75.7 percent jump in earnings, with ebitda before special items advancing to 2,613 million, from 1,487 million in 2005. The increase was due to a 774 million contribution from the acquired business of Schering AG, Germany, and gratifying business development in all divisions. CropScience posted underlying ebitda of 1,204 million, a decline of 5.4 percent in difficult market conditions. Here, cost savings partially offset a price- and volume-related squeeze on margins. MaterialScience

 


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26  Management Report    Bayer Annual Report 2006
     
Bayer Group Quarterly Sales in 2006
million
(BAYER GROUP GRAPH)
HealthCare Quarterly Sales in 2006
million
(HEALTHCARE GRAPH)
CropScience Quarterly Sales in 2006
million
(CROPSCIENCE GRAPH)
MaterialScience Quarterly Sales in 2006
million
(MATERIALSCIENCE GRAPH)

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006   Management Report  27
     
earnings nearly equaled the previous year’s outstanding level, with underlying ebitda falling just 4.9 percent to 1,677 million. However, earnings were diminished by a sharp increase in raw material costs and by unscheduled production interruptions in the fourth quarter.
Bayer Group ebit before special items, boosted by a 178 million contribution from the Schering business, climbed by 14.2 percent to a record high of 3,479 million, from 3,047 million in 2005.
ebit in 2006 was diminished by net special charges of 717 million, compared with 533 million in the prior year. Of the net special charges for 2006, HealthCare accounted for 402 million, CropScience for 57 million and MaterialScience for 218 million. Special charges of 273 million (net) were related to the acquisition and integration of Schering AG, Germany, 200 million (2005 : 109 million) to restructuring, 172 million (net) (2005: 451 million) to litigation, and 72 million (net) (2005: 27 million net gain) to other effects.
ebit after special items improved by 9.9 percent to 2,762 million, from 2,514 million in 2005.
After a non-operating result of minus 782 million ( 2005: minus 602 million), pre-tax income was 1,980 million (2005: 1,912 million). The non-operating result contained a 236 million gain from the sale of our 49.9 percent interest in GE Bayer Silicones and net interest expense of 728 million (2005: 338 million), including 370 million in interest expense for the immediate financing of the Schering AG acquisition. After tax expense of 454 million (2005: 538 million), income after taxes from continuing operations rose to 1,526 million (2005: 1,374 million). The reduction in tax expense was due primarily to one-time income due to increased usability of tax loss carryforwards. Including the result of discontinued operations and after minority stockholders’ interest, net income of the Bayer Group improved to 1,683 million (2005: 1,597 million). Earnings per share came to 2.22 (2005: 2.19).
Gross cash flow increased by 799 million to 3,913 million (2005: 3,114 million) due to the gratifying growth in business and the inclusion of Schering AG, Germany. Net cash flow advanced by 21.7 percent to 3,928 million. The total net cash flow including discontinued operations was 4,203 million.
Net debt amounted to 17.5 billion at December 31, 2006, compared to 5.5 billion at the end of 2005. Thus, despite the purchase price of approximately 17 billion for Schering AG, net debt rose by only 12 billion, taking into account the Schering shares not yet acquired and an advance payment of 0.4 billion received on the sale of the Diagnostics Division. The purchase price payments received at the beginning of 2007 for Diagnostics and H.C. Starck, along with the expected proceeds from the divestiture of Wolff Walsrode, are intended to contribute to a further substantial reduction in net debt during 2007.

 


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28  Management Report   Bayer Annual Report 2006
     
Bayer Group Quarterly EBITDA Before Special Items in 2006
million
(VAYER GROUP GRAPH)
HealthCare Quarterly EBITDA Before Special Items in 2006
million
(HEALTHCARE GRAPH)
CropScience Quarterly EBITDA Before Special Items in 2006
million
(CROPSCIENCE GRAPH)
MaterialScience Quarterly EBITDA Before Special Items in 2006
million
(MATERIALSCIENCE GRAPH)

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006   Management Report  29
We also had a successful fourth quarter. Thanks to strong business gains in HealthCare, Group sales moved ahead 25.1 percent to 8.0 billion, of which Schering, Berlin, Germany, accounted for 1.5 billion. Adjusted for currency and portfolio effects, Group sales rose by 5.7 percent, with business expanding by 10.6 percent at HealthCare and 7.4 percent at MaterialScience. Currency- and portfolio-adjusted sales of CropScience were at the previous year’s level (+0.4 percent), with business at a low level in Brazil.
Underlying ebitda in the fourth quarter climbed by 34.3 percent year on year, to 1,258 million, including a 352 million contribution from the Schering business. There was again a pleasing improvement in EBITDA performance of all the HealthCare divisions in the fourth quarter, while earnings of MaterialScience and CropScience declined. ebit before special items amounted to 622 million, against 553 million in the same period of 2005. Net special charges came to 416 million, with Bayer HealthCare accounting for most of these items. EBIT after special items came in at 206 million (Q4 2005: 129 million). Including tax income of 130 million, Group net income was 311 million (Q4 2005: 46 million). Earnings per share for the quarter were 0.41 (Q4 2005: 0.06). Net cash flow advanced 26.3 percent to 1,493 million (Q4 2005: 1,182 million). The total net cash flow including discontinued operations was 1,578 million (Q4 2005: 1,309 million).
Operating Environment in 2006
The dynamic pace of global economic growth established in 2005 continued into 2006, although the upswing slowed somewhat during the course of the year. Economic expansion nonetheless remained remarkably robust and became much more broadly based. The positive economic trend spurred the employment markets of the major industrialized countries, boosting private consumption. Growth in the emerging economies remained basically robust throughout the year.
The economy of the United States showed very good growth in the first quarter, but weakened markedly as the year progressed due to tighter monetary policy and higher energy prices. Although dampened by the weakness of the real estate market, private consumption remained the u.s. economy’s primary growth engine, with a substantial year-on-year increase. Industry investment also trended very well through the fall of the year thanks to healthy corporate earnings and high capacity utilization, but slowed toward year end.
In Europe, the upswing gained considerable steam, especially in the first half. The strong recovery in Germany, in particular, stimulated the economies of the other e.u. member states, and the euro zone economy has since gathered significant momentum. On top of robust foreign demand, firmer domestic demand also contributed increasingly to economic growth in this region. Private consumption expanded far more strongly than in previous years, thanks primarily to fuller employment. In addition, corporate investment activity picked up during the year thanks to higher capacity utilization and continuing good financing conditions.
In Japan the economy continued to expand, even if the pace of growth temporarily weakened in the summer. Buoyed by the sharp depreciation of the yen, exports rose rapidly and helped to stimulate the economy, but domestic demand proved to be the real growth

 


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30  Management Report     Bayer Annual Report 2006
     
engine. The improvement in the employment market spurred private consumption, although consumer sentiment deteriorated considerably in the second half. With capacity utilization at a high level, order books well filled and corporate earnings strong, companies were more willing to invest, thereby propping up the economy. By contrast, government spending declined markedly.
The emerging economies in Asia continued their robust expansion in the wake of strong global economic growth, albeit at a slower pace in the second half. These countries benefited particularly from high export demand from China, Japan and the United States, while private consumption showed a slight decline almost throughout the region. A general increase in interest rates dampened corporate investment activity. Despite government efforts to check the pace of expansion, the Chinese economy again showed rapid growth, which continued to be driven by domestic demand. Investment posted a double-digit increase and private consumption boomed. Exports again grew strongly in addition, despite the slight appreciation of the yuan.
The economy remained strong in most countries of Latin America thanks to robust domestic demand and the sharp rise in raw material prices in the first half of 2006, which benefited the raw material exporters. Private consumer demand rose considerably, spurred by higher real incomes. The region’s economy is thus increasingly broadly based. The Mexican economy evolved better than expected during the year, with high crude oil prices and continuing steady demand from the United States resulting in stable growth despite political turbulence. Argentina and Venezuela also developed well, but had to contend with high inflation rates. The only exception to this favorable overall picture was Brazil, where growth was comparatively moderate.
The prescription medicines market posted stable growth of more than 6 percent in 2006, although the pace of expansion was down slightly compared to the prior year. Trends varied greatly by region and product segment. In North America, the u.s. pharmaceuticals market recovered, expanding slightly faster than the average, as was already the case in Canada. The major u.s. companies saw sales of some blockbuster drugs fall dramatically due to numerous patent expirations, but these declines were offset by significant gains for cancer drugs and other specialty pharmaceuticals. Europe continued to suffer from the health care policy environment, with the result that below-average growth was recorded in all countries. Cardiovascular products and antibiotics, in particular, showed a very weak trend, while cancer drugs posted double-digit growth rates. The Japanese market stagnated due to the government’s biennial price cuts, which took place in April. Emerging markets such as Brazil, Mexico and China made particularly large contributions to the overall expansion in the sector. In these markets, unlike those of the highly industrialized countries, growth was strongest in the traditional primary care segments such as cardiovascular risk management and metabolic disorders.
The crop protection market weakened in 2006 due to adverse weather conditions in the major agricultural regions and the weakness of the Brazilian farming economy. Agriculture was additionally hampered by high energy and fertilizer prices. The North and Latin American markets, in particular, recorded sharp declines, though in Latin America there was some improvement toward the end of the year. The European market held steady

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006   Management Report  31
     
year on year after conditions improved in the second half. The Asian market as a whole trended slightly downward. In China, however, rising demand and the switch to modern chemical products led to strong growth.
The three major industry sectors relevant to Bayer MaterialScience registered good to above-average growth in 2006.
The expansion of the automotive industry in 2006 was spurred by strong growth in Asia – particularly in China and India and also in Japan, which is still the region’s largest producer. By contrast, the automotive sector shrank in western Europe and North America, the regions where there is high replacement demand. The decline in western Europe was partly the result of a shift in production toward eastern Europe and the Middle East. The slump in car sales in the United States particularly impacted the big three u.s. producers, which failed to respond to the growing demand for more fuel-efficient vehicles.
The global construction industry posted growth of 3 percent in 2006 , thanks to the positive trend not only in Asia and Latin America, but also in eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East. On the heels of market weakness in recent years, there was a gratifying performance in western Europe, due partly to the turnaround in Germany. In the u.s. residential construction stagnated, while the non-residential segment showed good growth.
The electrical and electronics sector again proved the most dynamic of the three, driven by brisk demand for capital equipment in areas such as automation technology, along with innovative products for the consumer electronics and communications technology markets. All regions contributed significantly to this industry’s expansion in 2006, led by China with double-digit increases.
Changes in Corporate Structure
Since June 23, 2006, we have held a majority of the shares of Schering AG, Berlin, Germany, and therefore have included Schering in our consolidated financial statements as of that date. The names “Bayer Schering Pharma” or “Schering” as used in this Annual Report always refer to Bayer Schering Pharma AG, Berlin, Germany, or its predecessor, Schering AG, Berlin, Germany, respectively. The reference to Bayer Schering Pharma AG or Schering AG also includes business conducted by affiliated entities in countries outside Germany. Bayer Schering Pharma AG and Schering-Plough Corporation, New Jersey, are unaffiliated companies that have been totally independent of each other for many years. On October 27, 2006, the domination and profit and loss transfer agreement between Bayer Schering GmbH and Schering AG was entered in the commercial register. The renaming of Schering AG to Bayer Schering Pharma AG took effect on December 29, 2006. As of December 31, 2006, our interest in the voting capital of Bayer Schering Pharma AG amounted to 96.2 percent. The 95 percent majority required to squeeze out the minority stockholders in return for cash compensation pursuant to Sections 327a through 327f of the German Stock Corporation Act was exceeded in the third quarter. The Extraordinary Stockholders’ Meeting on January 17, 2007, resolved to effect a squeeze-out of the remaining minority stockholders of Bayer Schering Pharma AG.
The sale of the Diagnostics Division of Bayer HealthCare to Siemens, announced in the second quarter of 2006, was closed in January 2007. The divestment of H.C. Starck to Advent International and The Carlyle Group was completed in February 2007. The transfer of our Wolff Walsrode activities to The Dow Chemical Company is planned for the second quarter of 2007. These three businesses are recognized as discontinued operations.

 


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32  Management Report     Bayer Annual Report 2006
     
To ensure comparability between reporting periods, the following table provides a reconciliation of Bayer’s sales and earnings data in the corporate structure existing at the beginning of 2006 to those in the new structure in place on December 31, 2006.
                                                                 
    Bayer excl. Schering,                     Operations Reported        
Bayer Key Data for the Previous and       incl. Discontinued                     as Discontinued     Continuing Operations  
Current Corporate Structures   Operations     Schering AG, Germany 1     as of 2006 4     incl. Schering 1  
 
million   2005     2006     2005     2006     2005     2006     2005     2006  
Sales
    27,383       28,719             3,082       2,682       2,845       24,701       28,956  
 
                                               
EBITDA2
    4,647       4,986             151       525       462       4,122       4,675  
 
                                               
EBITDA before special items
    5,082       5,291             774       480       481       4,602       5,584  
 
                                               
EBITDA margin before special items
    18.6 %     18.4 %           25.1 %     17.9 %     16.9 %     18.6 %     19.3 %
 
                                               
EBIT 2
    2,812       3,1793 3           (119 )     298       298 3     2,514       2,762  
 
                                               
EBIT before special items
    3,300       3,6353 3           178       253       334 3     3,047       3,479  
 
                                               
 
1   Schering AG business for the period June 23 — December 31, 2006
 
2   For definition see Bayer Group Key Data table on front flap
 
3   For a year-on-year comparison of data, it should be borne in mind that depreciation and amortization for the Diagnostics Division only took place for the first half of 2006. According to International Financial Reporting Standards, depreciation and amortization must cease from the date on which operations are classified as discontinued.
 
4   Diagnostics, H.C. Starck, Wolff Walsrode
Calculation of ebit(da) before special items for the Schering AG business
The purchase price paid for Schering AG, Germany, was allocated among the acquired assets and assumed liabilities in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (ifrs) (see also Note [7.2] to the consolidated financial statements).
One of the effects of the preliminary purchase price allocation is an upward revaluation or “step-up” of the acquired inventories and noncurrent assets. The greater part of the noncurrent asset step-up relates to assets used for production. Depreciation of the step-up amount results in a long-term increase in the cost of production of goods manufactured after the acquisition date. The “work-down” of the inventory step-up as the acquired inventories are sold off results in charges to earnings in the short term.
To ensure comparability with future earnings data, the expected long-term effects of the step-up are reflected in ebit and ebitda before special items, whereas temporary, non-cash effects of the purchase price allocation are eliminated.
Special items in ebit and ebitda for 2006 include 84 million and 429 million, respectively, in charges resulting from the purchase price allocation.

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006    Management Report  33
     
Performance by Subgroup and Segment
Our business activities are grouped into the HealthCare, CropScience and Material-Science subgroups. The following changes apply compared to the 2005 Annual Report: as of the first quarter of 2006, the “Pharmaceuticals, Biological Products” segment was renamed “Pharmaceuticals.” As of the second quarter of 2006 , this segment also includes the acquired Schering AG business. Also since the second quarter of 2006 , the Diagnostics Division has been reported in the financial statements of the Bayer Group as a discontinued operation. At the same time, the former Consumer Care and Animal Health segments were grouped together with the Diabetes Care Division to form the new segment “Consumer Health.”
Furthermore, the H.C. Starck and Wolff Walsrode activities of Bayer MaterialScience are reported in the 2006 financial statements of the Bayer Group as discontinued operations. The commentaries in this report relate exclusively to continuing operations, except where specific reference is made to discontinued operations or to a total value (total). The 2005 data are restated accordingly.
                                 
            2005 share             2006 share  
Sales by Subgroup and Segment   2005     of Group     2006     of Group  
    million     %     million     %  
HealthCare
    7,996       32       11,724       40  
 
                       
Pharmaceuticals
    4,067       16       7,478       26  
 
                       
Consumer Health
    3,929       16       4,246       14  
 
                       
CropScience
    5,896       24       5,700       20  
 
                       
Crop Protection
    4,874       20       4,644       16  
 
                       
Environmental Science, BioScience
    1,022       4       1,056       4  
 
                       
MaterialScience
    9,446       38       10,161       35  
 
                       
Materials
    2,837       11       2,925       10  
 
                       
Systems
    6,609       27       7,236       25  
 
                       
Reconciliation
    1,363       6       1,371       5  
 
                       
Continuing operations
    24,701       100       28,956       100  
 
                       
 
2005 figures restated

 


Table of Contents

34  Management Report   Bayer Annual Report 2006
     
Bayer HealthCare
                         
Bayer HealthCare   2005     2006     Change  
    million     million     %  
Sales
    7,996       11,724       +46.6  
 
                 
EBITDA1
    1,280       1,947       +52.1  
 
                 
Special items
    (207 )     (666 )        
 
                 
EBITDA before special items 2
    1,487       2,613       +75.7  
 
                 
EBITDA margin before special items
    18.6 %     22.3 %        
 
                 
EBIT1
    923       1,313       +42.3  
 
                 
Special items
    (254 )     (402 )        
 
                 
EBIT before special items 2
    1,177       1,715       +45.7  
 
                 
Gross cash flow 1
    923       1,720       +86.3  
 
                 
Net cash flow 1
    1,087       1,526       +40.4  
 
                 
 
2005 figures restated
 
1   for definition see Bayer Group Key Data on front flap
 
2   for definition see page 33
Sales of Bayer HealthCare in 2006 rose by 46.6 percent, or 3,728 million, to 11,724 million. The acquisition of Schering AG, Berlin, Germany, contributed 3,082 million to this figure. Currency- and portfolio-adjusted sales climbed by 10.0 percent. All divisions outperformed the market in terms of sales growth.
ebitda of the subgroup before special items advanced by 75.7 percent to 2,613 million (2005: 1,487 million), with the Schering business accounting for 774 million. ebit before special items rose by 538 million to 1,715 million (2005: 1,177 million). The net special charges of 402 million resulted primarily from expenses relating to the Schering integration. ebit of Bayer HealthCare moved ahead by 390 million, or 42.3 percent, to 1,313 million.
Pharmaceuticals
Sales of our Pharmaceuticals segment climbed by 83.9 percent to 7,478 million (2005: 4,067 million). This figure contains sales of 3,082 million due to the inclusion of the Schering AG business. Adjusted for currency and portfolio changes, business expanded by 11.5 percent. This encouraging growth in sales was particularly attributable to our Primary Care and Oncology business units.
The 2006 sales figures include the acquired business of Schering AG as of June 23, 2006. The Bayer Group financial statements do not include Schering AG results for the previous years. The commentaries given below on business developments related to the acquired Schering AG products are based on full year data that do not form part of the Bayer Group financial statements. Sales per product for the following discussion are based on sales data for the years ended December 31, 2006 and 2005 as prepared by Schering AG. We refer to those figures as “pro forma.”
Sales of the Primary Care business unit rose by 9.2 percent in 2006, to 3,091 million. This increase was due particularly to higher sales of Levitra® (+20.8 percent), Aspirin® Cardio (+18.1 percent) and Avalox®/Avelox® (+8.8 percent). Sales were additionally boosted by the inclusion of the blood pressure treatments Pritor® and PritorPlus®, for which we acquired the marketing rights for certain European countries from GlaxoSmith-Kline in January 2006. Sales from the acquired Schering AG andrology business in 2006 were included for the first time, amounting to 31 million in 2006. Mounting competition from generic products led to a slight 2.3 percent decline in sales of Cipro®/Ciprobay®.

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006   Management Report  35
     
Performance by Subgroup and Segment
In our Women’s Health business unit, which focuses on contraception, we achieved sales of 1,320 million. The main growth drivers were the oral contraceptives in the Yasmin®/ yaz®/Yasminelle® product line, pro forma sales of which were up by 35.5 percent in 2006. The fda has since expanded the registration for yaz®, which is thus the first and only oral contraceptive approved to effectively treat the emotional and physical symptoms of pre-menstrual dysphoric disorder as well as acne in women. Pro-forma sales of our intra-uterine system Mirena® also advanced by a pleasing 23.9 percent.
Sales of the Diagnostic Imaging business unit came to 697 million. Pro forma sales of our two main products Magnevist® and Ultravist® dropped by 1.5 and 10.5 percent, respectively, with lower sales of the latter attributable to the voluntary withdrawal of the 370 mgI/ml formulation. We resumed sales of this product in numerous countries in the first quarter of 2007. Medrad, which markets application technologies for contrast agents worldwide, grew pro forma sales by a pleasing 13.1 percent.
Sales of the Specialized Therapeutics business unit amounted to 678 million. Pro forma business with our top product Betaferon®/Betaseron® to treat multiple sclerosis (ms) expanded by 14.3 percent. The fda has expanded marketing authorization for Betaseron® so that it can now also be used to treat patients who have first clinical symptoms and diagnostic features consistent with ms.
Sales of the Hematology/Cardiology business unit receded by 4.9 percent to 1,142 million. The effects of terminating our plasma distribution in Canada at the end of March 2006 and markedly lower sales of Trasylol® (-33.5 percent) were nearly offset by the pleasing growth in sales of Kogenate® (+18.7 percent). Two separate observational studies reported on a possible correlation between the administration of Trasylol® (aprotinin), our product for use during open-heart surgery, and severe renal dysfunction and vasoconstriction (myocardial infarction and stroke). A follow-up study to one of them reported on a possible correlation between administration of this product and increased long-term mortality. Based on our study data and many years of experience with Trasylol®, Bayer believes that this product is a safe and effective medicine when used correctly. We are currently cooperating closely with the relevant regulatory authorities to resolve the questions that have arisen.
Our Oncology business unit increased sales by 397 million to 432 million. This figure contains 238 million in sales of the Schering AG oncology business with the key products Fludara®, Androcur® and Campath®. Our new cancer drug Nexavar®, first launched in December 2005, performed very well in the market, with sales of 130 million.
The Dermatology (Intendis) business unit had sales of 118 million. The unit’s two bestselling products, Skinoren® (+17.1 percent pro forma) and Advantan® (+10.6 percent pro forma) developed particularly well.

 


Table of Contents

36  Management Report   Bayer Annual Report 2006
     
                         
Pharmaceuticals   2005     2006     Change  
    million     million     %  
Sales
    4,067       7,478       +83.9  
 
                 
Primary Care
    2,831       3,091       +9.2  
 
                 
Women’s Health
          1,320        
 
                 
Diagnostic Imaging (including Medrad)
          697        
 
                 
Specialized Therapeutics
          678        
 
                 
Hematology/Cardiology
    1,201       1,142       -4.9  
 
                 
Oncology
    35       432        
 
                 
Dermatology (Intendis)
          118        
 
                 
EBITDA1
    663       1,051       +58.5  
 
                 
Special items
    (108 )     (635 )        
 
                 
EBITDA before special items2
    771       1,686       +118.7  
 
                 
EBITDA margin before special items
    19.0 %     22.5 %        
 
                 
EBIT1
    475       563       +18.5  
 
                 
Special items
    (140 )     (371 )        
 
                 
EBIT before special items2
    615       934       +51.9  
 
                 
Gross cash flow1
    449       1,086       +141.9  
 
                 
Net cash flow1
    481       1,053       +118.9  
 
                 
 
2005 figures restated
 
Data for the acquired Schering AG business are reflected for the period June 23 – December 31, 2006.
 
1   for definition see Bayer Group Key Data on front flap
 
2   for definition see also page 33
                         
Best-Selling Pharmaceutical Products   2005     2006     Change  
    million     million     %  
Betaferon®/Betaseron®* (Specialized Therapeutics)
          535        
 
                 
Yasmin®/YAZ®/Yasminelle®* (Women’s Health)
          451        
 
                 
Kogenate® (Hematology/Cardiology)
    663       787       +18.7  
 
                 
Adalat® (Primary Care)
    659       657       -0.3  
 
                 
Cipro®/Ciprobay® (Primary Care)
    525       513       -2.3  
 
                 
Avalox®/Avelox® (Primary Care)
    364       396       +8.8  
 
                 
Levitra® (Primary Care)
    260       314       +20.8  
 
                 
Mirena®* (Women’s Health)
          166        
 
                 
Magnevist® * (Diagnostic Imaging)
          171        
 
                 
Glucobay® (Primary Care)
    295       308       +4.4  
 
                 
Total
    2,766       4,298       +55.4  
 
                 
Proportion of Pharmaceutical sales
    68 %     57 %        
 
                 
 
Products are ranked by fourth-quarter sales.
 
*   acquired Schering AG product (sales included for the period June 23 – December 31, 2006).
                         
Best-Selling Schering AG Products (pro forma, unaudited)   2005     2006     Change  
 
  million   million     %  
 
                   
Betaferon®/Betaseron®
    867       991       +14.3  
 
                 
Yasmin®/YAZ®/Yasminelle®
    586       794       +35.5  
 
                 
Magnevist®
    328       323       -1.5  
 
                 
Mirena®
    243       301       +23.9  
 
                 

 


Table of Contents

Bayer Annual Report 2006   Management Report  37
     
Performance by Subgroup and Segment
ebitda of the Pharmaceuticals segment before special items advanced by 118.7 percent to 1,686 million (2005: 771 million), with the business acquired from Schering AG in June 2006 accounting for 774 million. When adjusted for portfolio effects, earnings rose by 141 million, due especially to a gratifying sales performance by Kogenate®, Levitra® and Avalox®/Avelox®. ebit before special items rose by 319 million, or 51.9 percent, to 934 million. The net special charges of 371 million in the Pharmaceuticals segment resulted chiefly from expenses for the integration of Schering AG, including a special gain of 74 million from the sale of an office building. ebit moved ahead by 88 million, or 18.5 percent, to 563 million.
Consumer Health
All divisions contributed to the gratifying performance of our Consumer Health segment, sales of which improved by 8.1 percent to 4,246 million. Adjusted for currency and portfolio effects, sales rose by 8.4 percent.
Business in the Consumer Care Division expanded by 7.5 percent to 2,531 million. Among our top products, Aleve® (+27.5 percent), Bepanthen®/Bepanthol® (+14.9 percent) and Canesten® (+11.7 percent) posted the largest sales gains.
There was a significant increase in sales of our Diabetes Care Division, where business improved by 12.8 percent to 810 million thanks mainly to the strong performance of our blood glucose monitoring system Ascensia® Contour® (+69.6 percent), which replaces the older Elite systems in the Ascensia® product line, sales of which rose by 12.4 percent overall.
Sales of the Animal Health Division rose by 5.7 percent to 905 million, due primarily to the pleasing performance of our Advantage® product line, where business was up 10.4 percent, and the continued market introduction of Profender®.
ebitda of the Consumer Health segment before special items grew by 211 million, or 29.5 percent, to 927 million. This increase was attributable to positive sales development and reduced production costs. ebit before special items advanced by 39.0 percent to 781 million. Earnings for 2006 were diminished by special charges totaling 31 million (2005: 114 million), the main items being expenses for the integration of the Roche consumer health business, which is largely completed, and restructuring activities in the United States. After special items, ebit improved by 67.4 percent to 750 million.
The strong growth in sales led to an increase in current assets, particularly inventories and receivables, diminishing net cash flow from 606 million in the prior year to 473 million in 2006.

 


Table of Contents

38  Management Report   Bayer Annual Report 2006
     
                         
Consumer Health   2005     2006     Change  
    million     million     %  
Sales
    3,929       4,246       +8.1  
 
                 
Consumer Care
    2,355       2,531       +7.5  
 
                 
Diabetes Care
    718       810       +12.8  
 
                 
Animal Health
    856       905       +5.7  
 
                 
EBITDA*
    617       896       +45.2  
 
                 
Special items
    (99 )     (31 )        
 
                 
EBITDA before special items
    716       927       +29.5  
 
                 
EBITDA margin before special items
    18.2 %     21.8 %        
 
                 
EBIT*
    448       750       +67.4  
 
                 
Special items
    (114 )     (31 )        
 
                 
EBIT before special items
    562       781       +39.0  
 
                 
Gross cash flow *
    474       634       +33.8  
 
                 
Net cash flow *
    606       473       -21.9  
 
                 
 
2005 figures restated
 
*   for definition see Bayer Group Key Data on front flap
                         
Best-Selling Consumer Health Products   2005     2006     Change  
    million     million     %  
Ascensia® product line (Diabetes Care)
    701       788       +12.4  
 
                 
Aspirin® * (Consumer Care)
    453       465       +2.6  
 
                 
Advantage®/Advantix® (Animal Health)
    249       275       +10.4  
 
                 
Aleve®/ naproxen (Consumer Care)
    178       227       +27.5  
 
                 
Canesten® (Consumer Care)
    145       162       +11.7  
 
                 
Baytril® (Animal Health)
    163       162       -0.6  
 
                 
Bepanthen ®/ Bepanthol® (Consumer Care)
    114       131       +14.9  
 
                 
Supradyn® (Consumer Care)
    125       130       +4.0  
 
                 
One-A-Day® (Consumer Care)
    118       124       +5.1  
 
                 
Alka-Seltzer® (Consumer Care)
    95       101       +6.3  
 
                 
Total
    2,341       2,565       +9.6  
 
                 
Proportion of Consumer Health sales
    60 %     60 %        
 
                 
 
*   total Aspirin® sales = 674 million (2005: 630 million), including Aspirin® Cardio, which is reflected in sales of the Pharmaceuticals segment

 


Table of Contents

Bayer Annual Report 2006   Management Report  39
     
Performance by Subgroup and Segment
Bayer CropScience
                         
Bayer CropScience   2005     2006     Change  
    million     million     %  
Sales
    5,896       5,700       -3.3  
 
                 
EBITDA*
    1,284       1,166       -9.2  
 
                 
Special items
    11       (38 )        
 
                 
EBITDA before special items
    1,273       1,204       -5.4  
 
                 
EBITDA margin before special items
    21.6 %     21.1 %        
 
                 
EBIT*
    690       584       -15.4  
 
                 
Special items
    5       (57 )        
 
                 
EBIT before special items
    685       641       -6.4  
 
                 
Gross cash flow*
    964       900       -6.6  
 
                 
Net cash flow*
    904       898       -0.7  
 
                 
 
*   for definition see Bayer Group Key Data on front flap
                         
Best-Selling Bayer CropScience Products *   2005     2006     Change  
    million     million     %  
Confidor®/Gaucho®/Admire®/Merit®
                       
(Insecticides/Seed Treatment/Environmental Science)
    587       564       -3.9  
 
                 
Folicur®/Raxil® (Fungicides/Seed Treatment)
    339       276       -18.6  
 
                 
Basta®/Liberty® (Herbicides)
    219       229       +4.6  
 
                 
Puma® (Herbicides)
    205       196       -4.4  
 
                 
Decis®/K-Othrine® (Insecticides/Environmental Science)
    159       183       +15.1  
 
                 
Flint®/Stratego®/Sphere® (Fungicides)
    193       181       -6.2  
 
                 
Atlantis® (Herbicides)
    142       169       +19.0  
 
                 
Proline® (Fungicides)
    91       144       +58.2  
 
                 
Poncho® (Seed Treatment)
    110       127       +15.5  
 
                 
Betanal® (Herbicides)
    128       120       -6.3  
 
                 
Total
    2,173       2,189       +0.7  
 
                 
Proportion of Bayer CropScience sales
    37 %     38 %        
 
                 
 
*   figures based on active ingredient class. For the sake of clarity, only the principal brands and business units are listed.
Sales of Bayer CropScience in 2006 came in at 5,700 million, down just 3.3 percent in a declining crop protection market. With selling prices in Brazil pegged to the u.s. dollar, the sharp appreciation of the local currency led to a decline in sales. Adjusted for this effect and for currency and portfolio changes, business at CropScience shrank by 2.3 percent.
ebitda before special items was down by 69 million, or 5.4 percent, in 2006 to 1,204 million. The savings achieved through cost structure and efficiency improvement programs partly compensated for the squeeze on margins brought about by price erosion, lower volumes and adverse currency effects. ebit before special items was down 44 million, or 6.4 percent, from the previous year to 641 million in 2006, hampered by special charges connected with the restructuring program initiated in summer 2006 . These charges were only partially offset by non-recurring income from the divestment of a family of mature herbicide products. After special items, ebit for 2006 amounted to 584 million (2005: 690 million).

 


Table of Contents

40  Management Report   Bayer Annual Report 2006
     
Crop Protection
Sales in the Crop Protection segment declined by 4.7 percent to 4,644 million, from 4,874 million in 2005. With selling prices in Brazil pegged to the u.s. dollar, the sharp appreciation of the local currency led to a decline in sales. Adjusted for this effect and for currency and portfolio changes, business in this segment shrank by 3.5 percent.
Fiscal 2006 was marked by adverse weather conditions in major agricultural markets, a difficult business environment in Brazil, heightening pressure on prices from generic products and an increasing trend toward genetically modified crops. The resulting decline in sales was partially offset by the successful marketing of innovative active ingredients introduced over the past few years. Sales of products containing these new ingredients, which have been introduced in core markets since 2000, achieved the 2006 target of 1 billion. Contributing to this performance were our cereal herbicide Atlantis®, the seed treatment Poncho® and the cereal fungicide Proline®. Including our Flint® fungicide, four of our recent market introductions were among our ten best-selling products.
Sales of our Insecticides business unit fell by 7.0 percent overall, to 1,219 million (2005: 1,311 million). The decline was attributable to the adverse market environment in Brazil, unfavorable regional weather conditions, increasing competition from generics and the absence of business in certain mature insecticide products that have been divested. Business with insecticides in China, however, developed well. Global sales of our new ketoenols Oberon® and Envidor® posted significant increases.
Sales of the Fungicides business unit receded 3.8 percent to 1,200 million. One reason for the decrease was the prolonged drought in Australia, the United States and parts of Europe, which led to a decrease in fungal infestation. Another was the weakness of the farm economy in Brazil, which led to declining acreages, particularly for soybeans. These effects primarily impacted sales of our Folicur® and Flint® product lines.
                         
Crop Protection   2005     2006     Change  
    million     million     %  
Sales
    4,874       4,644       -4.7  
 
                 
Insecticides
    1,311       1,219       -7.0  
 
                 
Fungicides
    1,248       1,200       -3.8  
 
                 
Herbicides
    1,840       1,758       -4.5  
 
                 
Seed Treatment
    475       467       -1.7  
 
                 
EBITDA*
    1,026       889       -13.4  
 
                 
Special items
    12       (38 )        
 
                 
EBITDA before special items
    1,014       927       -8.6  
 
                 
EBITDA margin before special items
    20.8 %     20.0 %        
 
                 
EBIT*
    532       384       -27.8  
 
                 
Special items
    7       (57 )        
 
                 
EBIT before special items
    525       441       -16.0  
 
                 
Gross cash flow*
    762       691       -9.3  
 
                 
Net cash flow*
    699       748       +7.0  
 
                 
 
*   for definition see Bayer Group Key Data on front flap

 


Table of Contents

Bayer Annual Report 2006   Management Report  41
     
Performance by Subgroup and Segment
In the Herbicides business unit, sales dropped by 4.5 percent to 1,758 million, from 1,840 million in 2005. Herbicide sales, too, were hampered by the drought conditions in many regions and the increasing cultivation of genetically modified corn and soybeans in the United States and Latin America. Atlantis® and Olympus® performed very strongly in the market, further strengthening our position as one of the leading suppliers of cereal herbicides. Business with our herbicides Basta® and Liberty® moved ahead.
Sales of our Seed Treatment business unit dipped by 1.7 percent to 467 million. Adjusted for portfolio effects, however, sales were slightly above the prior year. Business with our recently introduced seed treatment products Poncho®, EfA®, Bariton® and Scenic® compensated for the decline in sales due to the drought in Australia and the e.u. sugar market reform.
ebitda before special items for the Crop Protection business decreased to 927 million. The price-related decline in margins was partly offset by savings achieved through our cost structure and efficiency improvement programs.
ebit before special items fell by 16.0 percent to 441 million. After net special charges of 57 million, ebit for 2006 came in at 384 million, down from 532 million in the previous year.
Environmental Science, BioScience
                         
Environmental Science, BioScience   2005     2006     Change  
    million     million     %  
Sales
    1,022       1,056       +3.3  
 
                 
Environmental Science
    694       714       +2.9  
 
                 
BioScience
    328       342       +4.3  
 
                 
EBITDA*
    258       277       +7.4  
 
                 
Special items
    (1 )     0          
 
                 
EBITDA before special items
    259       277       +6.9  
 
                 
EBITDA margin before special items
    25.3 %     26.2 %        
 
                 
EBIT*
    158       200       +26.6  
 
                 
Special items
    (2 )     0          
 
                 
EBIT before special items
    160       200       +25.0  
 
                 
Gross cash flow*
    202       209       +3.5  
 
                 
Net cash flow*
    205       150       -26.8  
 
                 
 
*   for definition see Bayer Group Key Data on front flap
Sales of the Environmental Science, BioScience segment rose by 3.3 percent in 2006 to 1,056 million, or by 3.7 percent when adjusted for currency and portfolio changes.
The Environmental Science unit saw business expand by 2.9 percent to 714 million, from 694 million in 2005, in light of strong sales gains by our products for professional users.
BioScience increased sales by 4.3 percent to 342 million, thanks mainly to buoyant sales of vegetable and canola seed products.

 


Table of Contents

42  Management Report   Bayer Annual Report 2006
     
ebitda for Environmental Science, BioScience before special items rose by 277 million, or 6.9 percent, thanks to the growth in business. Costs savings in Environmental Science also had a positive effect. ebit before special items advanced by 25.0 percent from the prior year to 200 million. ebit after special items rose by 26.6 percent.
Due to an increase in working capital, net cash flow dropped to 150 million, from 205 million in the previous year.
Bayer MaterialScience
                         
Bayer MaterialScience   2005     2006     Change  
    million     million     %  
Sales
    9,446       10,161       +7.6  
 
                 
EBITDA*
    1,721       1,499       -12.9  
 
                 
Special items
    (43 )     (178 )        
 
                   
EBITDA before special items
    1,764       1,677       -4.9  
 
                 
EBITDA margin before special items
    18.7 %     16.5 %        
 
                   
EBIT*
    1,250       992       -20.6  
 
                 
Special items
    (43 )     (218 )        
 
                   
EBIT before special items
    1,293       1,210       -6.4  
 
                 
Gross cash flow*
    1,254       1,166       -7.0  
 
                 
Net cash flow*
    1,337       1,281       -4.2  
 
                 
 
2005 figures restated
 
*   for definition see Bayer Group Key Data on front flap
The upward business trend at Bayer MaterialScience continued in 2006 , with sales advancing a further 7.6 percent from the previous year’s high level to 10,161 million, or by 7.2 percent when adjusted for currency and portfolio effects. This encouraging growth in business was due primarily to higher volumes in all business units, while selling prices rose slightly on average.
ebitda before special items almost matched the previous year’s level, dipping just 4.9 percent to 1,677 million. Substantial price hikes for petrochemical feedstocks, especially in the second half, were offset by volume growth and price increases, but fourth-quarter earnings were held back by a temporary loss of production in Krefeld-Uerdingen, Germany. In addition, the expansion of our sales organization in the growth market of Asia and expenses for the start-up of our production facilities in China led to an increase in costs.
ebit before special items dropped by 83 million, or 6.4 percent, to 1,210 million. Special charges amounted to 218 million, including 153 million in litigation-related expenses. The prior-year figure contained net special charges of 43 million. ebit after special items was down by 258 million, or 20.6 percent, to 992 million.

 


Table of Contents

Bayer Annual Report 2006   Management Report  43
     
Performance by Subgroup and Segment
Materials
Our Materials segment saw sales rise by 3.1 percent in 2006, to 2,925 million. Adjusted for currency and portfolio changes, the increase was 3.3 percent. Volumes in the Poly-carbonates business unit moved higher, particularly in Europe and Asia/Pacific, with sales up 2.8 percent over 2005 despite heavy pressure on prices. The Thermoplastic Poly-urethanes business unit grew sales by 6.8 percent, mainly as a result of higher volumes.
ebitda before special items fell by a substantial 30.7 percent in 2006 , to 448 million, as a result of a squeeze on margins caused by lower selling prices and rising raw material costs, which were not outweighed by the higher volumes. ebit before special items fell by 41.6 percent to 289 million, while ebit after special items dropped by 225 million to 289 million.
Systems
Sales of the Systems segment climbed by 9.5 percent year on year to 7,236 million, or by 8.9 percent when adjusted for currency and portfolio effects. This expansion was attributable to both selling price and volume increases in all business units.
ebitda before special items in 2006 advanced by 9.9 percent to 1,229 million, with selling price increases and higher volumes more than compensating for the rise in raw material costs. ebit before special items climbed by 123 million, or 15.4 percent, to 921 million. ebit of the Systems segment was hampered by special charges of 218 million, resulting primarily from an arbitration proceeding in the United States relating to the production of propylene oxide. Other special charges were incurred in connection with pending antitrust proceedings and the restructuring of our u.s. sites in New Martinsville, West Virginia, and Baytown, Texas. After special items, ebit declined by 33 million, or 4.5 percent, to 703 million.

 


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44  Management Report   Bayer Annual Report 2006
     
                         
Materials   2005     2006     Change  
    million     million     %  
Sales
    2,837       2,925       +3.1  
 
                 
Polycarbonates
    2,645       2,720       +2.8  
 
                 
Thermoplastic Polyurethanes
    192       205       +6.8  
 
                 
EBITDA*
    665       448       -32.6  
 
                 
Special items
    19       0          
 
                   
EBITDA before special items
    646       448       -30.7  
 
                 
EBITDA margin before special items
    22.8 %     15.3 %        
 
                   
EBIT*
    514       289       -43.8  
 
                 
Special items
    19       0          
 
                   
EBIT before special items
    495       289       -41.6  
 
                 
Gross cash flow*
    473       364       -23.0  
 
                 
Net cash flow*
    466       324       -30.5  
 
                 
 
2005 figures restated
 
*   for definition see Bayer Group Key Data on front flap
                         
Systems   2005     2006     Change  
    million     million     %  
Sales
    6,609       7,236       +9.5  
 
                 
Polyurethanes
    4,792       5,182       +8.1  
 
                 
Coatings, Adhesives, Sealants
    1,330       1,488       +11.9  
 
                 
Inorganic Basic Chemicals
    380       403       +6.1  
 
                 
Other
    107       163       +52.3  
 
                 
EBITDA*
    1,056       1,051       -0.5  
 
                 
Special items
    (62 )     (178 )        
 
                   
EBITDA before special items
    1,118       1,229       +9.9  
 
                 
EBITDA margin before special items
    16.9 %     17.0 %        
 
                   
EBIT*
    736       703       -4.5  
 
                 
Special items
    (62 )     (218 )        
 
                   
EBIT before special items
    798       921       +15.4  
 
                 
Gross cash flow*
    781       802       +2.7  
 
                 
Net cash flow*
    871       957       +9.9  
 
                 
 
*   for definition see Bayer Group Key Data on front flap

 


Table of Contents

Bayer Annual Report 2006   Management Report  45
     
Performance by Region
In 2006 Bayer’s global business expanded by 4,255 million, or 17.2 percent, to 28,956 million. Adjusted for shifts in exchange rates, sales rose by 17.4 percent.
The largest increase in absolute terms was achieved in the Europe region, where sales climbed by 17.5 percent to 12,652 million. Portfolio-adjusted sales in Europe expanded by 5.1 percent, driven by HealthCare and MaterialScience. Sales of the CropScience subgroup remained steady at the previous year’s level due to unfavorable weather conditions, particularly in southern Europe. Sales in Germany grew 17.7 percent to 4,525 million, or by 7.9 percent when adjusted for portfolio effects.
Sales in North America advanced by 19.8 percent in 2006, to 7,779 million. Adjusted for portfolio effects, the increase came to 5.9 percent. In this region too, improvements were recorded by HealthCare, thanks to strong sales in the Consumer Health segment, as well as by MaterialScience in the Polyurethanes business unit and in Coatings, Adhesives, Sealants. In the Crop Protection segment, on the other hand, sales declined due to adverse weather patterns and increasing cultivation of genetically modified crops.
In the Asia/Pacific and Latin America/Africa/Middle East regions, sales rose by 13.2 percent and 16.5 percent, respectively. Notably, sales in Greater China advanced by a gratifying 24.1 percent from the previous year, to 1.5 billion. Portfolio-adjusted sales in the two regions advanced by 3.7 and 4.3 percent, respectively, thanks to growth in HealthCare and MaterialScience. However, CropScience sales in the Latin America/Africa/ Middle East region receded by 9.1 percent due to the difficult market environment in Brazil, but dipped by only 1.0 percent in the Asia/Pacific region when adjusted for currency effects.
                                                                                                                                                                 
Sales by Region and Segment (by market)
  Europe     North America     Asia/Pacific     Latin America/Africa/Middle East     Continuing operations
million   2005     2006     %     adj. %     2005     2006     %     adj.     2005     2006     %     adj. %     2005     2006     %     adj. %     2005     2006     %     adj. %  
Bayer HealthCare
    3,192       4,737       +48.4       +48.3       2,450       3,689       +50.6       +50.5       1,201       1,649       +37.3       +40.9       1,153       1,649       +43.0       +44.6       7,996       11,724       +46.6       +47.2  
 
                                                                                                                       
Pharmaceuticals
    1,600       3,046       +90.4       +90.2       1,129       2,226       +97.2       +96.6       900       1,313       +45.9       +50.5       438       893       +103.9       +105.7       4,067       7,478       +83.9       +84.5  
 
                                                                                                                       
Consumer Health
    1,592       1,691       +6.2       +6.3       1,321       1,463       +10.7       +11.1       301       336       +11.6       +12.1       715       756       +5.7       +7.3       3,929       4,246       +8.1       +8.5  
 
                                                                                                                       
Bayer CropScience
    2,241       2,251       +0.4       +0.3       1,528       1,457       -4.6       -5.1       933       907       -2.8       -1.0       1,194       1,085       -9.1       -11.4       5,896       5,700       -3.3       -3.7  
 
                                                                                                                       
Crop Protection
    1,901       1,909       +0.4       +0.2       1,076       996       -7.4       -8.1       811       772       -4.8       -3.1       1,086       967       -11.0       -13.5       4,874       4,644       -4.7       -5.2  
 
                                                                                                                       
Environmental
Science,
BioScience
    340       342       +0.6       +0.5       452       461       +2.0       +2.1       122       135       +10.7       +13.2       108       118       +9.3       +9.9       1,022       1,056       +3.3       +3.7  
 
                                                                                                                       
Bayer MaterialScience
    4,098       4,402       +7.4       +7.4       2,500       2,622       +4.9       +5.4       1,887       2,007       +6.4       +7.2       961       1,130       +17.6       +16.8       9,446       10,161       +7.6       +7.8  
 
                                                                                                                       
Materials
    1,063       1,100       +3.5       +3.4       609       599       -1.6       -1.0       908       947       +4.3       +4.9       257       279       +8.6       +8.8       2,837       2,925       +3.1       +3.4  
 
                                                                                                                       
Systems
    3,035       3,302       +8.8       +8.8       1,891       2,023       +7.0       +7.5       979       1,060       +8.3       +9.3       704       851       +20.9       +19.8       6,609       7,236       +9.5       +9.7  
 
                                                                                                                       
Continuing
operations (incl. reconciliation)
    10,771       12,652       +17.5       +17.4       6,496       7,779       +19.8       +19.9       4,073       4,610       +13.2       +15.0       3,361       3,915       +16.5       +16.0       24,701       28,956       +17.2       +17.4  
 
                                                                                                                       
 
2005 figures restated
 
adj.= currency-adjusted

 


Table of Contents

46  Management Report   Bayer Annual Report 2006
     
Value Management
“Our goal is to steadily increase Bayer’s enterprise value and generate high value-added for the benefit of our stockholders, our employees and society as a whole in every country in which we do business.”
Werner Wenning, Chairman of the Board of Management of Bayer AG
Cash value added-based system
One of the prime objectives of the Bayer Group is to sustainably increase enterprise value. In 1994 we became one of the first German companies to embark on the development of a value management system, which we introduced throughout the Group in 1997. The system is used for the planning, controlling and monitoring of our businesses. Our primary value-based indicator is the cash value added (cva), which shows the degree to which the cash flows needed to cover the costs of equity and debt and of reproducing depletable assets have been generated. If the cva is positive, the company or business entity concerned has created additional value. If it is negative, the anticipated capital and asset reproduction costs have not been earned. Gross cash flow (gcf) and cva are profitability indicators for a single reporting period. For a year-on-year comparison we therefore use the delta cva, which is the difference between the cvas of two consecutive periods. A positive delta cva shows that value creation has improved from one period to the next.
Calculating the cost of capital
Bayer calculates the cost of capital according to the debt/equity ratio by the weighted average cost of capital (wacc) formula. The cost of equity capital is the return expected by stockholders, computed from capital market information. The cost of debt used in calculating wacc is based on the terms for a ten-year corporate bond issue.

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006   Management Report  47
     
To take into account the different risk and return profiles of our principal businesses, we calculate the cost of capital after taxes for each of our subgroups. In 2006 this was 7.5 percent (2005: 8.0 percent) for Bayer HealthCare, 7.0 percent (2005 : 6.5 percent) for Bayer CropScience and 6.5 percent (2005: 6.0 percent) for Bayer MaterialScience. The minimum return required for the Bayer Group as a whole was 7.0 percent ( 2005 : 7.0 percent).
Gross cash flow, cash flow return on investment, and cash value added as performance yardsticks
The gcf, as published in our cash flow statement, is the measure of our internal financing capability. Bayer has chosen this parameter because it is relatively free of accounting influences and thus a more meaningful performance indicator.
The profitability of the Group and of its individual business entities is measured by the cash flow return on investment (cfroi). This is the ratio of the gcf to the capital invested (ci). The ci can be derived from the balance sheet and basically comprises the property, plant and equipment and intangible assets required for operations — stated at cost of acquisition or construction - plus working capital, less interest-free liabilities (such as short-term provisions). To allow for fluctuations during the year, the cfroi is computed on the basis of the average ci for the respective year.
Taking into account the costs of capital and of reproducing depletable assets, we determine the gcf hurdle. If the gcf hurdle is equaled or exceeded, the required return on equity and debt plus the cost of asset reproduction has been earned. The cfroi hurdle for 2006 was 10.0 percent, while the corresponding gcf hurdle was 3,188 million.
Actual gcf came in at 3,913 million, exceeding the hurdle by a substantial 22.7 percent. Thus in 2006 we earned our entire capital and asset reproduction costs, and the positive cva of 725 million shows we created additional value. Given the previous year’s cva of 746 million, the Bayer Group therefore achieved a delta cva of minus 21 million. With a cfroi of 12.1 percent in 2006 (2005: 12.5 percent), we thus almost equaled the previous year’s record level despite the acquisition-related increase in the capital invested.
The HealthCare and MaterialScience subgroups exceeded their target returns including asset reproduction. The cfroi for HealthCare declined from 15.5 percent in the previous year to 12.4 percent, due to the increase in capital invested associated with the Schering AG acquisition and also because of integration-related charges. MaterialScience achieved a cfroi of 15.6 percent (2005: 17.8 percent). The figure for CropScience dipped from 11.2 percent in the prior year to 10.3 percent in 2006 .
                                                                 
Value Management Indicators by Subgroup   HealthCare     CropScience     MaterialScience     Bayer Group  
million   2005     2006     2005     2006     2005     2006     2005     2006  
Gross cash flow hurdle (GCF hurdle)
    690       1,536       935       1,000       610       649       2,368       3,188  
 
                                               
Gross cash flow* (GCF)
    923       1,720       964       900       1,254       1,166       3,114       3,913  
 
                                               
Cash value added (CVA)
    233       184       29       (100 )     644       517       746       725  
 
                                               
Cash fl ow return on investment (CFROI)
    15.5 %     12.4 %     11.2 %     10.3 %     17.8 %     15.6 %     12.5 %     12.1 %
 
                                               
Average capital invested (ACI)
    5,955       13,865       8,618       8,728       7,054       7,489       24,893       32,276  
 
                                               
 
2005 figures restated
 
*   for definition see Bayer Group Key Data on front flap

 


Table of Contents

         
48 Management Report
      Bayer Annual Report 2006
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Operating cash flow
Gross cash flow in 2006 amounted to 3,913 million, up 25.7 percent from the previous year (3,114 million). The increase was mainly the result of the strong business performance in HealthCare and the inclusion of Schering AG, Berlin, Germany. Higher tax payments had a negative effect. Earnings for 2005 contained tax-free gains of 238 million from changes in our company pension plans, while in 2006 the charges resulting from the revaluation of acquired assets of Schering AG were not tax-deductible.
Net cash flow from continuing operations rose by 21.7 percent, or 701 million – including 483 million from the Schering business – to 3,928 million (2005: 3,227 million).
Investing cash flow
There was a net cash outflow of 14.7 billion for investing activities in 2006, compared to a 1.7 billion inflow in the previous year. This was chiefly attributable to disbursements totaling 15.2 billion for the Schering AG acquisition, including the purchase price payments for 96.2 percent of Bayer Schering Pharma AG shares as of December 31, 2006, less approximately 1 billion in acquired cash. We also acquired biotech company Icon Genetics and u.s.-based Metrika for a total of 75 million.
Cash outflows for additions to property, plant and equipment (1,534 million) and other intangible assets (342 million) totaled 1,876 million, up 487 million from the previous year. The outflows included 137 million in capital expenditures made by Schering AG. Depreciation of property, plant and equipment came to 1,086 million, and amortization of intangible assets to 1,000 million.
Capital expenditures for property, plant, equipment and intangible assets included disbursements for the purchase of the European marketing rights for the hypertension treatments Pritor® and PritorPlus® and expenditures for the expansion of our polymers production facilities at the Caojing site near Shanghai, China. In September 2006 we inaugurated at that site a world-scale polycarbonate production facility with an initial capacity of 100,000 tons per year, a plant for the manufacture of the polyurethane raw materials monomeric and polymeric Mdi (diphenylmethane diisocyanate) from crude Mdi with an annual capacity of 80,000 tons, and a production unit for hexamethylene diisocyanate with a planned initial capacity of 30,000 tons.
Receipts from sales of property, plant, equipment and other assets totaled 185 million (2005: 105 million), while the proceeds of divestitures amounted to 489 million (2005: 293 million). At the end of 2006 we received an initial payment of 395 million related to the sale of our Diagnostics business; this transaction closed at the beginning of 2007.
Receipts from noncurrent financial assets came to 850 million, compared to 1,189 million in 2005. This figure primarily included the sale of our 49.9 percent interest in GE Bayer Silicones to the other partner General Electric and the repayment of a loan made to the chemical company Symrise. This loan had been granted to the company that purchased the Haarmann & Reimer group from Bayer in 2002.

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006
      Management Report   49
In the previous year, expenditures for acquisitions mainly comprised a payment of about 1.9 billion for the consumer health business of Roche. Receipts related to noncurrent financial assets in that year came to 1.2 billion, resulting primarily from the scheduled repayment of loans by lanxess and the expiration of derivatives. The 293 million cash inflow from divestitures in 2005 consisted largely of the proceeds from the sale of the u.s. plasma business.
                 
Bayer Group Summary Cash Flow Statements   2005     2006  
million                  
Gross cash flow*
    3,114       3,913  
 
           
Changes in working capital/other non-cash items
    113       15  
 
           
Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities (net cash flow), continuing operations
    3,227       3,928  
 
           
Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities (net cash flow), discontinued operations
    275       275  
 
           
Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities (net cash flow), (total)
    3,502       4,203  
 
           
Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities (total)
    (1,741 )     (14.730 )
 
           
Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities (total)
    (1,881 )     10,199  
 
           
Change in cash and cash equivalents due to business activities (total)
    (120 )     (328 )
 
           
Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year
    3.570       3,290  
 
           
Change due to exchange rate movements and to changes in scope of consolidation
    (160 )     (47 )
 
           
Cash and cash equivalents at end of year
    3,290       2,915  
 
           
 
2005 figures restated
 
*   for definition see Bayer Group Key Data on front flap
Financing cash flow
Financing activities resulted in a net cash inflow in 2006 of 10.2 billion (2005: outflow of 1.9 billion), which was chiefly due to net borrowings of 10.7 billion in connection with the financing of the Schering AG acquisition. The proceeds from the placement of 34 million new shares amounted to 1.2 billion. For details of the financing, see the table headed “Principal Financing Measures for the Schering AG Acquisition” on the next page.
Cash outflows for dividend payments – less the 176 million refund of advance capital gains tax payments made on intragroup dividends in 2004 – amounted to 535 million (2005: 440 million), while interest payments rose to 1,155 million (2005: 787 million) primarily as a result of borrowings made to finance the Schering AG acquisition.
As of December 31, 2006 the Bayer Group had cash and cash equivalents of 2,915 million, including 799 million held in escrow accounts. The latter amount comprises 710 million transferred to a guarantee account following the decision to squeeze out Bayer Schering Pharma AG’s remaining minority stockholders, and 89 million (2005: 253 million) earmarked exclusively for payments relating to civil law settlements in antitrust proceedings. In view of the restriction on its use, the liquidity held in escrow accounts was not deducted when calculating net debt.

 


Table of Contents

         
50 Management Report
      Bayer Annual Report 2006
Net debt
                 
    Dec. 31,     Dec. 31,  
Net Debt   2005     2006  
million                
Noncurrent financial liabilities as per balance sheets (including derivatives)
    7,185       14,723  
 
           
of which mandatory convertible bond
          2,276  
 
           
of which hybrid bond
    1,268       1,247  
 
           
Current financial liabilities as per balance sheets (including derivatives)
    1,767       5,078  
 
           
- Derivative receivables
    188       185  
 
           
Financial liabilities
    8,764       19,616  
 
           
- Cash and cash equivalents*
    3,037       2,116  
 
           
- Available-for-sale financial assets
    233       27  
 
           
Net debt from continuing operations
    5,494       17,473  
 
           
Net debt from discontinued operations
    0       66  
 
           
Net debt (total)
    5,494       17,539  
 
           
 
*   In view of the restriction on its use, the 799 million liquidity in escrow accounts was not deducted when calculating net debt. December 31, 2006: 2,116 million = 2,915 million — 799 million (December 31, 2005: 3,037 million = 3,290 million — 253 million)
Net debt rose to 17.5 billion as of December 31, 2006, due mainly to the financing of the Schering AG acquisition. The disbursements for this acquisition in 2006 totaled 16.3 billion. From Schering AG we assumed financial liabilities of 0.2 billion and acquired liquid assets of 1.0 billion. The following table shows the components of the acquisition financing package and their status at year end.
                 
    June 30,     Dec. 31,  
Principal Financing Measures for the Schering AG Acquisition   2006     2006  
billion                
Credit utilization:
               
 
           
Bridge financing (7 billion facility)
    0.6       0  
 
           
Syndicated loan (7 billion facility)
    7.0       5.7  
 
           
of which with a one-year term
    3.0       1.7  
 
           
Bond issues:
               
 
           
3-year floating-rate Eurobond
    1.6       1.6  
 
           
7-year fixed-rate Eurobond
    1.0       1.0  
 
           
12-year fixed-rate sterling bond
    0.4       0.5  
 
           
Mandatory convertible bond
    2.3       2.3  
 
           
Stock placement:
               
 
           
New shares
          1.2  
 
           
Total
    12.9       12.3  
 
           
The remainder of the purchase price for the acquired shares of Schering AG was financed mainly with liquid assets. As well as fully redeeming the bridge financing, we had also paid down the syndicated 7 billion loan to 5.7 billion by the end of 2006.
In China, Bayer secured a rmb 6.1 billion (0.6 billion) credit line to finance the ongoing construction of a production facility for polyurethane raw materials in Caojing.

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006
      Management Report   51
Liquidity and Capital Resources
As of December 31, 2006 we had noncurrent financial liabilities of 14.7 billion, including the 1.2 billion hybrid bond issued in July 2005 and the 2.3 billion mandatory convertible bond issued in April 2006. Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s treat 75 percent and 50 percent, respectively, of the hybrid bond as equity. Both rating agencies consider the mandatory convertible bond wholly as equity. Unlike conventional borrowings, the hybrid bond thus has only a limited effect on the Group’s rating-specific debt indicators, while the mandatory convertible bond has no effect. We raised an additional 1.2 billion through the successful placement of 34 million new shares. Along with the placing of the 2.3 billion mandatory convertible bond, this completed the equity raising announced in connection with the Schering AG acquisition. The total 3.5 billion thus raised is below the 4 billion limit originally set.
In January 2007, we sold the diagnostics business to Siemens for 4.3 billion. The difference compared with the price of 4.2 billion announced in July 2006 results mainly from the transfer of higher working capital. The transaction resulted in a cash inflow of 0.4 billion at the end of 2006, while the remaining 3.9 billion was received at the beginning of 2007. We sold H.C. Starck to Advent International and The Carlyle Group. The transaction value of approximately 1.2 billion comprises a cash component of more than 0.7 billion and the assumption of financial liabilities and personnel-related commitments totaling some 0.5 billion. This sale was closed at the beginning of February 2007. We intend to use the cash inflows from these transactions, along with the proceeds of the planned sale of Wolff Walsrode to The Dow Chemical Company, to reduce net debt.
Financial strategy
The financial management of the Bayer Group is conducted by the management holding company Bayer AG. Finance is a global resource, generally procured centrally and distributed within the Group. The foremost objectives of our financial management are to help bring about a sustained increase in corporate value and ensure the Group’s creditworthiness and liquidity. That means reducing our cost of capital, improving our financing cash flow, optimizing our capital structure and effectively managing risk.
Due to the increase in debt in connection with the acquisition of Schering AG, Standard & Poor’s in July 2006 downgraded Bayer AG’s long-term issuer rating from A with stable outlook to bbb+ with positive outlook. Also in July 2006, Moody’s confirmed our current a3 rating, changing the outlook from stable to negative. The short-term ratings are a-2 (Standard & Poor’s) and p-2 (Moody’s). These investment-grade ratings evidence a continuing high level of creditworthiness.
Our financial strategy is geared toward the single-a rating category in order to maintain our financial flexibility. We therefore plan to use both the proceeds of divestitures and our operating cash flows to reduce net debt.
We generally pursue a prudent debt management strategy aimed at ensuring flexibility, drawing on a balanced financing portfolio. Chief among these resources – in keeping with our requirements – are a syndicated credit facility, a multi-currency commercial paper program and a multi-currency Euro Medium Term Note program. We also supplement our financing with various structured products, such as an asset-backed securities program.
We use financial derivatives to hedge against risks arising from business operations or financial transactions, but do not employ contracts in the absence of an underlying transaction. It is our policy to diminish the default risk by selecting trading partners with a high credit standing. We closely monitor the execution of all transactions, which are conducted according to Group-wide guidelines.

 


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52 Management Report
      Bayer Annual Report 2006
Further details of our risk management objectives and the ways in which we hedge all the major types of transaction to which hedge accounting is applied, along with procurement market, credit, liquidity and cash flow risks, as they relate to our use of financial instruments, are given in Note [30] to the consolidated financial statements.
Earnings Performance
                         
Bayer Group Summary Income Statements   2005     2006     Change  
    million     million     %  
Net sales
    24,701       28,956       +17.2  
 
                 
Cost of goods sold
    (13,412 )     (15,275 )     +13.9  
 
                 
Selling expenses
    (5,247 )     (6,534 )     +24.5  
 
                 
Research and development expenses
    (1,729 )     (2,297 )     +32.9  
 
                 
General administration expenses
    (1,307 )     (1,599 )     +22.3  
 
                 
Other operating income and expenses — net
    (492 )     (489 )     -0.6  
 
                 
EBIT (operating result)
    2,514       2,762       +9.9  
 
                 
Non-operating result
    (602 )     (782 )     +29.9  
 
                 
Income before income taxes
    1,912       1,980       +3.6  
 
                 
Income taxes
    (538 )     (454 )     -15.6  
 
                 
Income after taxes from discontinued operations
    221       169       -23.5  
 
                 
Income after taxes
    1,595       1,695       +6.3  
 
                 
of which attributable to minority interest
    (2 )     12        
 
                 
of which attributable to Bayer AG stockholders (net income)
    1,597       1,683       +5.4  
 
                 
 
2005 figures restated
Net sales of the Bayer Group increased by 17.2 percent, or 4,255 million, from the previous year to 28,956 million. In local currencies and adjusted for portfolio effects, sales rose by 5.2 percent.
The cost of goods sold increased by 13.9 percent to 15.3 billion, mainly due to the inclusion of the business of Schering AG, Berlin, Germany, but also because of the growth in other businesses and higher raw material costs. The ratio of the cost of goods sold to total net sales was 52.8 percent, compared with 54.3 percent in the previous year. With the inclusion of Schering AG, selling expenses rose by a total of 24.5 percent to 6.5 billion. Due to the increase in the proportion of life science activities in our portfolio, the ratio of selling expenses to sales rose to 22.6 percent, from 21.2 percent in 2005. The importance of research and development in the Bayer Group has further increased through the Schering AG acquisition. Accordingly, our research and development expenses climbed by 32.9 percent to 2.3 billion, the ratio of r&d expenses to net sales being 7.9 percent (2005: 7.0 percent). General administration expenses came to 1,599 million. The negative balance of other operating income and expenses resulted from costs related to the acquisition of Schering AG and integration of the business, restructuring, litigation and valuation write-downs. Gains included mainly those from the sale of a building and the divestiture of low-volume product lines and active ingredients.
ebit for 2006 came in at 2,762 million. Before net special charges of 717 million (2005: 533 million), ebit climbed by 14.2 percent to 3,479 million.

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006
      Management Report   53
The non-operating result worsened by 180 million to minus 782 million. Whereas income from investments in affiliated companies rose by a substantial 229 million, net interest expense increased by 390 million, due particularly to the acquisition-related increase in net debt at mid-year. Income from investments in affiliated companies included the proceeds of 236 million from the sale of our 49.9 percent interest in GE Bayer Silicones.
Income taxes for continuing operations in 2006 came to 454 million (2005: 538 million). The lower tax expense was due mainly to first-time recognition of deferred tax assets for loss carryforwards. The effective tax rate declined to 22.9 percent, from 28.1 percent in the prior year.
Including the result of discontinued operations and after minority interests, Group net income in 2006 improved by 86 million to 1,683 million.
Asset and Capital Structure
Total assets increased by 19.2 billion compared with December 31, 2005, to 55.9 billion, mainly because of the acquisition of Schering AG, Berlin, Germany. Explanations concerning the full consolidation of Schering are provided in Note [7.2] to the consolidated financial statements. The data relating to the Schering AG purchase price allocation are preliminary.
                         
    Dec. 31,     Dec. 31,        
Bayer Group Summary Balance Sheets   2005     2006     Change  
    million     million     %  
Noncurrent assets
    20,130       35,897       +78.3  
 
                 
Current assets
    16,592       17,069       +2.9  
 
                 
Assets held for sale and discontinued operations
    0       2,925        
 
                 
Total current assets
    16,592       19,994       +20.5  
 
                 
Total assets
    36,722       55,891       +52.2  
 
 
                 
Stockholders’ equity
    11,157       12,851       +15.2  
 
                 
Noncurrent liabilities
    16,495       27,525       +66.9  
 
                 
Current liabilities
    9,070       14,667       +61.7  
 
                 
Liabilities directly related to assets held for sale and discontinued operations
    0       848        
 
                 
Total current liabilities
    9,070       15,515       +71.1  
 
                 
Liabilities
    25,565       43,040       +68.4  
 
                 
Total stockholders’ equity and liabilities
    36,722       55,891       +52.2  
 
                 
Noncurrent assets rose by 15.8 billion to 35.9 billion. They include 11.6 billion in acquired and amortized intangible assets of Schering AG, consisting mainly of production-related rights and know-how. Noncurrent assets also included goodwill of 5.7 billion as of December 31, 2006 resulting from the Schering AG acquisition.
Current assets of continuing operations rose by 0.5 billion from the previous year, to 17.1 billion, largely because of the trade accounts receivable, inventories, and cash and cash equivalents added by the Schering AG acquisition. Current assets were diminished by the presentation of Diagnostics, H.C. Starck and Wolff Walsrode as discontinued operations. These businesses are no longer reflected in the individual balance sheet items as in the prior year, but instead are recognized under “Assets held for sale and discontinued operations” and the corresponding liability item.

 


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54 Management Report
      Bayer Annual Report 2006
Stockholders’ equity expanded by 1.7 billion to 12.9 billion. The dividend payment (including reimbursements of capital gains tax) diminished stockholders’ equity by 0.5 billion, and negative currency effects led to a reduction of 0.7 billion, while Group net income contributed 1.7 billion and the issuance of new shares added 1.2 billion. This capital increase brought the capital stock of Bayer AG to 2.0 billion. The equity ratio (equity coverage of total assets) for 2006 thus stood at 23.0 percent on December 31, 2006 (2005: 30.4 percent). Taking into account our portfolio changes, we expect the equity ratio to be back at around 30 percent at year end 2007.
Liabilities grew by 17.5 billion compared with December 31, 2005, to 43.0 billion. Current and noncurrent financial liabilities rose by 10.8 billion, mainly due to the financing of the Schering AG acquisition. Despite the inclusion of Schering’s pension commitments, provisions for pensions were down by 0.6 billion to 6.5 billion in light of actuarial changes recognized directly in stockholders’ equity.
                     
Balance Sheet and Financial Ratios       2005     2006  
Cost of sales ratio (%)
  Cost of goods sold     54.3       52.8  
 
                     
 
  Net sales                
 
R&D expense ratio (%)
  Research and development expenses     7.0       7.9  
 
                     
 
  Net sales                
 
Inventory turnover
  Cost of goods sold     2.4       2.5  
 
                     
 
  Inventories                
 
Receivables turnover
  Net sales     4.7       5.0  
 
                     
 
  Trade accounts receivable                
 
EBIT margin before special items (%)
  EBIT before special items     12.3       12.0  
 
                     
 
  Net sales                
 
EBITDA margin before special items (%)
  EBITDA before special items     18.6       19.3  
 
                     
 
  Net sales                
 
Asset intensity (%)
  Property, plant and equipment + intangible assets     43.6       62.1  
 
                     
 
  Total assets (continuing operations) 1                
 
D&A/capex ratio (%)
  Depreciation and amortization     126.5       100.1  
 
                     
 
  Capital expenditures                
 
Liability structure 2 (%)
  Current liabilities     35.5       36.0  
 
                     
 
  Liabilities                
 
Gearing (%)
  Net debt + pension provisions     1.1       1.9  
 
                     
 
  Stockholders’ equity                
 
Equity ratio 2 (%)
  Stockholders' equity     30.4       23.0  
 
                     
 
  Total assets                
 
Return on stockholders’ equity 2 (%)
  Income after taxes     14.4       14.1  
 
                     
 
  Average stockholders’ equity                
 
Return on assets (%)
  Income before taxes and interest expense                
 
                     
 
  Average total assets for the year based on     8.8       7.7  
 
  segment table                
 
2005 figures restated
 
1   Total assets (continuing operations) = noncurrent and current assets minus the balance sheet item “assets held for sale and discontinued operations”
 
2   Ratio refers to the total of continuing and discontinued operations

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006
      Management Report   55
Asset and Capital Structure
Information pursuant to Section 289, Paragraph 4 and Section 315, Paragraph 4 of the German Commercial Code
The capital stock of Bayer AG amounts to 1,956,715,315.20 and is divided into 764,341,920 no-par bearer shares. Each share confers one voting right.
We have received the following notifications of direct and indirect holdings of shares in Bayer AG that exceed 10 percent of the capital stock:
The Capital Group Companies, Inc., u.s.a., has notified us pursuant to Section 21, Paragraph 1 of the German Securities Trading Act (WpHG) that the proportion of voting rights it holds in our company exceeded the 10 percent threshold on September 19, 2006, that since that date it has held 10.0179 percent of the voting rights and that all of these voting rights are attributable to it pursuant to Section 22, Paragraph 1, Sentence 1, No. 6 in conjunction with Section 22, Paragraph 1, Sentence 2 and Sentence 3 of the German Securities Trading Act. Further, the Capital Research and Management Company, u.s.a., which according to our information is a subsidiary of The Capital Group Companies, Inc., has notified us that the proportion of voting rights it holds in our company exceeded the 10 percent threshold on November 8, 2006, that since that date it has held 10.0852 percent of the voting rights, and that all of these voting rights are attributable to it pursuant to Section 22, Paragraph 1, Sentence 1, No. 6 of the German Securities Trading Act.
Pursuant to Section 84, Paragraph 1 of the German Stock Corporation Act (AktG), the members of the Board of Management are appointed and dismissed by the Supervisory Board. Since Bayer AG falls within the scope of the German Codetermination Act (MitbestG), the appointment or dismissal of members of the Board of Management requires a majority of two-thirds of the votes of the members of the Supervisory Board. If no such majority is achieved on the first ballot, the appointment may be approved on a second ballot by a simple majority of the votes of the members of the Supervisory Board pursuant to Section 31, Paragraph 3 of the Codetermination Act. If the required majority is still not achieved, a third ballot is held. Here again, a simple majority of the votes suffices, but in this ballot the Chairman of the Supervisory Board has two votes pursuant to Section 31, Paragraph 4 of the Codetermination Act.
Under Section 6, Paragraph 1 of the Articles of Incorporation of Bayer AG, the Board of Management must comprise at least two members. If further members are appointed to the Board of Management, under Section 84, Paragraph 2 of the German Stock Corporation Act or Section 6, Paragraph 1 of the Articles of Incorporation, the Supervisory Board may appoint one member to be Chairman of the Board of Management.
Pursuant to Section 179, Paragraph 1 of the German Stock Corporation Act, amendments to the Articles of Incorporation require a resolution of the Stockholders’ Meeting. Pursuant to Section 179, Paragraph 2, this resolution must be passed by a majority of three-quarters of the voting capital represented at the meeting, unless the Articles of Incorporation provide for a different majority. However, where an amendment relates to a change in the object of the company, the Articles of Incorporation may only specify a larger majority. Section 17, Paragraph 2 of the Articles of Incorporation of Bayer AG utilizes the scope for deviation pursuant to Section 179, Paragraph 2 of the German Stock Corporation Act and provides that resolutions may be passed by a simple majority of the votes or, where a capital majority is required, by a simple majority of the capital.
The Annual Stockholders’ Meeting of Bayer AG on April 28, 2006 resolved to revoke the existing Authorized Capital and create new Authorized Capital (Authorized Capital I and Authorized Capital II) and adopted the necessary amendments to the Articles of Incorporation. With the approval of the Supervisory Board and until April 27, 2011, the Board of Management may use the Authorized Capital I to increase the capital stock by up to a

 


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56 Management Report
      Bayer Annual Report 2006
total of 465 million. The issue of new shares may take place in exchange for cash and/or contributions in kind, but capital increases in exchange for contributions in kind may not exceed a total of 370 million. If the Authorized Capital I is used to issue shares in return for cash contributions, stockholders must be granted subscription rights. With the approval of the Supervisory Board and until April 27, 2011, the Board of Management is also authorized to increase the capital by up to 186 million in one or more installments by issuing shares out of the Authorized Capital II in exchange for cash contributions. The stockholders must be granted subscription rights. However, the Board of Management is authorized, with the approval of the Supervisory Board, to exclude subscription rights for stockholders provided the capital increase out of the Authorized Capital II does not exceed 10 percent of the capital stock existing at the time this authorization becomes effective or the time this authorization is exercised. Following the capital increase on July 6, 2006, the Authorized Capital II is currently 98.960 million.
Conditional capital of 186.88 million, corresponding to 73,000,000 shares, exists to service the conversion rights under a mandatory convertible bond issued by Bayer Capital Corporation b.v. on April 6, 2006. Further, the Annual Stockholders’ Meeting on April 28, 2006 authorized the Board of Management to purchase and sell company shares representing up to 10 percent of the capital stock. This authorization expires on October 27, 2007.
Material agreements entered into by Bayer AG which are subject to the condition precedent of a change of control include, firstly, the agreement of March 23, 2006 establishing a 7 billion syndicated credit facility for Bayer AG. This agreement contains provisions entitling the banks participating in the syndication to terminate the agreement in the event of a change of control and demand repayment of any outstanding sums.
Similarly, the 2.3 billion mandatory convertible bond issued by Bayer Capital Corporation b.v. on April 6, 2006, which is secured by a subordinated guarantee from Bayer AG, also contains a change of control clause. Under Section 6.5 of the conditions of issue, in the event of a takeover offer pursuant to Section 29, Paragraph 1 of the German Securities Acquisition and Takeover Act (WpÜG) or a mandatory offer, bondholders shall be entitled to exercise their conversion rights. If they do so, they will receive Bayer AG shares in accordance with the applicable conversion ratio.
Finally, the terms of the 3 billion in notes issued by Bayer AG in 2006 under its multi-currency Euro Medium Term Note program also contain a change of control clause. Holders of these notes have the right to demand the redemption of their notes by Bayer AG in the event of a change of control if Bayer AG’s credit rating is downgraded within 120 days after such change of control becomes effective.
The following arrangements have been made for the members of the Board of Management of Bayer AG in the event of a takeover offer:
In the event of a change of control and termination of a Board of Management member’s service contract within 12 months thereafter – whether by mutual consent, through expiration of the contract or through its voluntary termination by the member in certain circumstances, such as a change in strategy – the member would receive a monthly bridging allowance amounting to 80 percent of his last monthly fixed salary for a period of 60 months, not counting any period for which he is released from his duties on full pay. His pension entitlement is based on the final target pension level. If this has not already been reached by the date of the change of control, his pension entitlement will be supplemented up to this level.
There are no comparable arrangements for employees.

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006
      Management Report   57
Proposal for Distribution of the Profit
Under German law, the dividend payment is based on the balance sheet profit of the parent company, which amounted to 764 million in 2006:
                 
Bayer AG Summary Income Statements   2005     2006  
million            
Net sales
    197       196  
 
           
Cost of goods sold
    (134 )     (146 )
 
           
Gross profit
    63       50  
 
           
Selling and administration expenses
    (215 )     (194 )
 
           
Other operating income and expenses – net
    110       (5 )
 
           
Operating result
    (42 )     (149 )
 
           
Non-operating result
    719       1,449  
 
           
Income before income taxes
    677       1,300  
 
           
Income taxes
    (64 )     (50 )
 
           
Net income
    613       1,250  
 
           
Allocation (to) from retained earnings
    81       (486 )
 
           
Balance sheet profit
    694       764  
 
           
We will propose to the Annual Stockholders’ Meeting on April 27, 2007 that the balance sheet profit be used to pay a dividend of 1.00 per share (764,341,920 shares) on the capital stock of 2.0 billion entitled to the dividend for 2006.

 


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58 Management Report
      Bayer Annual Report 2006
Employees
On December 31, 2006 the Bayer Group had 106,000 employees worldwide, compared to 82,600 on the same date in 2005. This increase is due largely to the inclusion of the employees of Schering. The 9,700 employees in discontinued operations are not included in the overall number.
Since the second quarter of 2006, the number of employees has been converted to full-time equivalents, which means part-time employees are included in proportion to their contractual working hours. We believe this presentation improves the comparability of personnel expenses and employee numbers. The previous year’s data have been restated accordingly. A breakdown of employees by segment and region is provided in the segment table in Note [1] to the consolidated financial statements. Personnel expenses increased by 24.7 percent in 2006 to 6,630 million. This figure includes Schering employees from the effective date of the Schering acquisition.
Our employees are our most important capital. Bayer’s human resources policy is centered around fostering their individual potential through continuing education and programs to help employees reconcile career and private goals. Our ambitious efforts in these areas make us a very attractive employer worldwide, as also demonstrated by various honors presented to Bayer in 2006 in Germany and around the world (see page 210 ff.).
In October 2006 the Bayer European Forum formulated a joint declaration confirming the high importance of a diverse employee structure for our company. For many years, social dialogue between the employer’s and the employees’ representatives at Bayer’s European companies has been a central element of the cross-border exchange of information and opinions.
It has been a long-standing priority at Bayer to give young people a career start, and we once again intensified our traditionally strong efforts in vocational training. We established 30 additional vocational training positions as a contribution to the pact formed between the German government and industry to promote occupational training and the development of young managerial staff. Overall more than 1,000 young people entered an occupational training program at Bayer in 2006. Also, for many years, we have maintained a special program to prepare socially and educationally disadvantaged young people for vocational training courses.
At our many sites around the world, we uphold an ongoing commitment to vocational training and continuing education for our employees. In 2006, for example, we invested a total of approximately 4.5 million in continuing education measures for our employees in Latin America, with Brazil alone accounting for about 1.7 million of this figure.
In connection with the more competitive alignment of our administrative functions, we began reorganizing our human resources (hr) activities in October 2006. A clear distribution of tasks strengthens the focus on value-creating processes, reduces complexity and significantly improves support to our employees at all levels. In the individual Bayer Group companies, hr Business Partners advise management on strategic personnel issues and hr Experts develop human resources strategies and instruments for Group-wide application. The hr Shared Service Center Europe in Leverkusen offers rapid and competent assistance to all employees on a wide range of personnel issues. Other human resources processes of the Bayer Group in Europe are to be transferred successively to the Shared Service Center through the end of 2008. The company plans to establish additional shared service centers in North and South America in 2007 and later on in Asia.

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006
      Management Report   59
We have further modernized our policy on health protection at the workplace by developing a comprehensive declaration on non-smoker protection, thus taking a firm stance on this issue. Our company health management plan includes both counseling and courses to help employees stop smoking.
Variable income component systems based on corporate performance have traditionally been a core element of our employee remuneration policy. For example, short-term incentive payments in a record amount of approximately 59 million were made to the some 18,400 active non-managerial employees of the subgroups, services companies and Corporate Center in Germany in 2006. Through the introduction of a Group component based on the ebitda margin, the company’s success will be even more clearly reflected in the future in calculating short-term incentive payments.
In many countries we have offered various stock participation programs for a number of years that enable our employees to purchase Bayer shares at more favorable rates, thus making an important contribution to asset formation. Due partly to its high earnings goals, stockholder friendliness and transparency, the “Aspire” program we introduced in 2005 for the executive management level was honored just one year later by the asset management specialist Union Investment as the best program offered by the 30 German dax companies.
Procurement and Distribution
Bayer HealthCare
The Pharmaceuticals segment generally procures the starting materials for manufacturing the active ingredients of its prescription medicines from external suppliers. We hold strategic reserves to prevent supply bottlenecks and possible dependence on suppliers. We mitigate major price fluctuations by purchasing the intermediates required to manufacture our principal active ingredients from several approved suppliers on the basis of global contracts. The active ingredients of our prescription medicines are currently manufactured almost entirely in Wuppertal and Bergkamen, Germany, for Bayer production facilities worldwide. Our most important pharmaceutical production plants are located in Berlin, Leverkusen and Weimar, Germany; Berkeley, California, and Seattle, Washington, United States; Garbagnate, Italy; São Paulo, Brazil; Madrid, Spain; and Turku, Finland. Our products are primarily distributed through wholesalers, pharmacies and hospitals.
Since we actively compete with other drug suppliers worldwide, we seek to reinforce our external distribution network with co-promotion and co-marketing arrangements. In September 2004 we entered into a strategic alliance with Schering-Plough under which that company distributes our primary care products (including Cipro® and Avelox®) in the United States. (Please note that Schering-Plough Corporation, New Jersey and the company acquired by Bayer in June 2006, i.e. Bayer Schering Pharma AG [formerly named Schering AG], Berlin, Germany, are unaffiliated companies that have been totally independent of each other for many years.) At the same time, we market selected oncology products from Schering-Plough in selected countries. Bayer and Schering-Plough also plan to jointly market Schering-Plough’s product Zetia® in Japan, where it is currently involved in the registration process. Our erectile dysfunction drug Levitra® is co-marketed in the United States by GlaxoSmithKline and Schering-Plough. In October 2005

 


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we signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Johnson & Johnson under the terms of which Johnson & Johnson is supporting the development of our antithrombotic drug rivar-oxaban (bay 59-7939). It is intended that Johnson & Johnson market the newly developed drug in the United States at a later date. We also have a co-marketing agreement with Wyeth, Inc. for Europe concerning gestoden, an active ingredient for oral contraceptives.
In our Consumer Health segment the focus is on products marketed directly to consumers. The Consumer Care Division concentrates on non-prescription drugs. While the division’s sales and distribution channels outside Europe are typically supermarket chains, drugstores and other wholesalers, pharmacies are the usual distribution channel in Europe. Consumer Care procures certain high volume raw materials from within the Bayer Group. Our major externally procured high-volume raw materials from third parties are naproxen, ascorbic acid, citric acid, paracetamol and phenylephrine. These are generally readily available. To minimize business risks, we diversify our raw material procurement sources worldwide and conclude long-term supply agreements.
About one quarter of the products of the Diabetes Care Division are manufactured or assembled directly by Bayer, while the rest are procured from original equipment manufacturers (oems). The delivery of raw materials, components and finished products is based on a supplier management process. Access to most of the materials is thus safeguarded through contractual agreements, and they are therefore not subject to major fluctuations in price or availability. Delivery bottlenecks for some direct or oem materials would have negative consequences for the earnings performance of Diabetes Care. These items include customer-specific, integrated circuits and sensors for producing the Ascen sia® blood glucose measurement system. We therefore hold strategic reserves of certain direct materials or finished products in order to be able to supply our customers consistently and reliably. Furthermore, we maintain a global supplier network. Our Diabetes Care products are generally marketed to consumers outside Europe through supermarket chains, drugstores and other wholesalers. In Europe, we market our products usually through pharmacies.
The Animal Health Division procures the active pharmaceutical ingredients for its veterinary medicines both from within the Bayer Group and from external suppliers throughout the world. Depending on local regulatory frameworks, animal health products may be available to end users with a prescription issued by a veterinarian or over the counter from retailers or in drugstores and other specialized marketers.
Bayer CropScience
Crop Protection procures most of its raw materials from external companies. The cost of some raw materials depends on fluctuating crude oil and energy prices and freight charges. As a large proportion of our sales is generated in the northern hemisphere, the business is affected by the growing seasons for the relevant crops and the respective distribution cycles. The products of Crop Protection are marketed either to wholesalers or directly to retailers through a two- or three-tier distribution system, according to local market conditions.
Our Environmental Science Business Group markets its products to both professional users and consumer markets in the non-crop segment through various distribution channels. Our green industry, pest control and vector control products are marketed directly to professional users, while home and garden products are sold to consumers through distribution channels.

 


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Procurement and Distribution
BioScience makes its seed products available to growers, distributors and processing industries. Traits developed using plant biotechnology are either outlicensed to other seed companies for use in their products or sold through our own seed companies. Important brands here include InVigor® and FiberMax®. In some cases we make plant traits available to other companies for use in their own research.
Bayer MaterialScience
The Polycarbonates business unit of MaterialScience sells its products primarily to injection molding and extrusion processors for the manufacture of plastics components used predominantly in the automotive, electronics, construction, data systems, medical equipment and leisure sectors. The key petrochemical raw materials used by our Polycarbon-ates business unit are acetone and phenol. With raw material costs affected mainly by the volatility of crude oil and oil derivative prices, we generally conclude long-term supply agreements containing cost-based and market-price-oriented adjustment formulas. Our products are marketed chiefly through regional distribution channels. We also use trading houses and local distributors to sell to small volume customers.
The polyurethane products of the Polyurethanes business unit, which are based on isocy-anate-polyol systems, are used in the automotive, construction, electronics and furniture industries and in leisure articles. The primary raw materials are petrochemical feedstocks, which we mostly procure on the open market through long-term agreements. Our global joint venture with Lyondell provides a supply source for propylene oxide, one of our key raw materials. We mostly sell our isocyanate and polyol products directly to customers. Europe and the nafta countries remain the primary markets for our polyurethanes business, with the Asian market continuing to show the strongest prospects for future growth.
Our Coatings, Adhesives, Sealants business unit is a major manufacturer of raw materials for coatings and adhesives used primarily in the automotive, furniture, plastics and construction industries. Temporary fluctuations in prices for crude oil or utilities, for example, can heavily impact the cost of our raw materials. For this reason, supplies of the principal chemical raw materials are secured through long-term agreements. Major customers with global operations are serviced directly by our key account managers.

 


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Research and Development
(BAR GRAPH)
In 2006 Bayer invested a total of 2,297 million in research and development. It is particularly important for us to continuously optimize our product portfolio and manufacturing processes, while at the same time developing new products aimed at strengthening our core businesses.
Other research focuses are enabling technologies such as biotechnology and nanotechnology, which offer enormous potential for developing new products and businesses.
For innovation projects in particular, we build on our network of collaborations with leading universities, public-sector research institutes and partner companies. These collaborations allow the pooling of expertise in order to rapidly translate new ideas into successful products.
The Bayer AG innovation initiative “Triple-i: Inspiration, Ideas, Innovation” was successfully launched in 2006. The initiative encourages all Bayer employees worldwide to submit ideas for potential new products and thus help strengthen Bayer’s innovative power. More than 1,900 ideas were received in the first eight months, many of which were passed on for further evaluation.
Bayer HealthCare
In 2006, 1,426 million, or roughly 62.1 percent of the Bayer Group’s research and development budget, was spent by HealthCare. Here it must be kept in mind that the Schering AG business is included on a pro-rated basis. With this investment, the subgroup is laying the foundation in the Pharmaceuticals and Consumer Health segments for the introduction of further innovative products in expanding markets.
The Research & Development function of our Pharmaceuticals segment has been restructured as part of our integration of Schering AG. It now encompasses the functions Global Drug Discovery and Global Development. We intend the changes in Research & Development to leverage the combined assets of Schering and Bayer to maximize both the output and effectiveness of our drug discovery and development programs.

 


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Research and Development
Research programs and activities will be consolidated into three major research and development sites: Berlin and Wuppertal, Germany, and Berkeley, California. The Berlin research group will take leadership for diagnostic imaging, oncology and women’s health. Wuppertal will take leadership for the company’s hematology and cardiology research. Both locations have significant capabilities and activities in target discovery, lead generation and optimization, drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics, toxicology and clinical pharmacology. Berkeley will remain an important global research and development center for protein-based biologics drug discovery and will continue to be home of the Kogenate® biological manufacturing facility. Bayer HealthCare’s u.s. research site in West Haven, Connecticut, and that of Berlex Inc. (u.s. subsidiary of Bayer Schering Pharma AG) in Richmond, California, will be closed.
Our r&d activities are focused on the identification and development of new active substances for diseases with a high unmet medical need. In 2006 we conducted clinical studies with several candidates from our research and development pipeline.
Our research and development pipeline is currently being evaluated in connection with the integration of Schering AG and will be announced at a later date.
Following its registration by the u.s. Food and Drug Administration in December 2005, our new cancer drug Nexavar® (sorafenib) was approved in July 2006 by the European Medicines Evaluation Agency (emea) for the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (rcc). Over the course of 2006, the product was registered in nearly 50 other countries for the treatment of advanced rcc. Nexavar® is based on a novel active ingredient developed jointly with Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. that inhibits tumor growth by simultaneously blocking several serine/threonine and receptor tyrosine kinases in tumor cells. The drug also reduces the generation of blood vessels that supply the tumor.
In addition to the launch of Nexavar® for advanced rcc, we are actively pursuing our Phase III clinical trial programs for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (hcc), malignant melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer (nsclc). In the course of 2006, the fda and the European emea both granted “orphan drug” designation to Nexavar® for the treatment of hcc. Furthermore, Nexavar® received “fast track” status from the FDA for the treatment of hcc and malignant melanoma. In December 2006, results were announced from the Phase iii malignant melanoma study evaluating the combination of Nexavar® or placebo tablets with the chemotherapeutic agents carboplatin and paclitaxel in patients with advanced melanoma. This trial did not meet its primary endpoint of improving progression-free survival (pfs). The result of treatment was similar in the two treatment arms. In February 2007 an independent data monitoring committee (dmc) reviewed the safety and efficacy data of the Phase iii clinical trial on the treatment of hcc with the conclusion that the trial met its primary endpoint. The dmc recommended stopping the trial early and Bayer and Onyx will follow that recommendation. The companies will continue discussions with health authorities worldwide regarding the next steps in filing for approval for the treatment of hcc, and intend to make those filings as rapidly as possible. Other tumor types are under investigation in earlier stages of clinical development.
In 2006 we launched Phase ii clinical trials with zk-epo, a further development candidate from the indication oncology.

 


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zk-epo is a novel epothilone that blocks tumor cell division through a special mechanism of action. This substance is specifically designed to overcome limitations associated with other microtubule stabilizing agents. zk-epo is currently being tested for its effectiveness against various solid tumors, including several major cancers such as non-small-cell lung cancer (nsclc), ovarian cancer, prostate cancer and breast cancer.
Rivaroxaban (bay 59-7939) is a novel oral direct Factor Xa inhibitor being developed to address currently unmet needs in the anticoagulation market for prevention and treatment of thrombotic events. In October 2005, Bayer HealthCare and the Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ortho-McNeil entered into an alliance under which Ortho-McNeil is contributing to the development of rivaroxaban, and initiated phase III clinical trials in December 2005 for the prevention of venous thromboembolism (vte) after major orthopedic surgery. In June 2006 we announced Phase III trials in the two chronic indications stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation and treatment of venous thromboembolism vte in a once-daily dose regimen. Also in 2006, we began Phase II clinical trials in the indication acute coronary syndrome/myocardial infarction.
One example of research and development activities in our Women’s Health business unit is the developmental product yaz® from the drospirenone product line. A flexible dosing regimen will make yaz® unique and different from other long-cycle oral contraceptives. The project is in Phase III clinical trials. Clinical studies for yaz ® in the indication acne treatment have demonstrated its effectiveness in this indication. This effect is brought about by the ingredient progestin drospirenone, which has anti-androgenic properties. fda approval for yaz® in the treatment of acne was granted in January 2007.
Our research and development efforts for biological products of the Hematology/Cardiology business unit are centered around strengthening and expanding our recombinant Factor VIII product Kogenate®. Key research and product development projects involving this product are Kogenate® – Next Generation and gene therapy for hemophilia B. In addition to the current optimization of new protein variants of our recombinant blood coagulation Factor VIII, we are evaluating technologies that could also playarole for the next generation of Kogenate®. These technologies include, among others, developments based on an exclusive global license agreement with Dutch-based Zilip-Pharma that permits us to develop and market a new Kogenate® fs presentation based on patented pegylated liposome technology.
To supplement our internal research and development efforts, we collaborate with several companies in different stages of the typical pharmaceutical research cycle.
We supplement our portfolio of products emerging from our own research and development with in-licensed products, both on a global and a national level. Recent examples are the purchase of the European business for Boehringer Ingelheim’s blood pressure treatment telmisartan (Pritor® and PritorPlus®) from GlaxoSmithKline in January 2006. Also in January 2006, we entered into an agreement with Nuvelo, Inc. for the global development and commercialization of alfimeprase, a novel clot dissolver, which is currently in Phase III development for the indications acute peripheral arterial occlusion (apao) and catheter occlusion (co) and was granted “fast track” status by the fda in January 2006. Nuvelo and Bayer HealthCare announced in December 2006 that the two Phase III trials of alfimeprase in patients with apao (napa-2 trial) and in co (sonoma-2 trial) did not meet their primary endpoints. The companies are temporarily suspending enrollment in the ongoing Phase III trials, napa-3 and sonoma-3, until further analyses and discussions with outside experts and regulatory agencies are completed.

 


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Research and Development
In October 2006 we entered into a collaboration agreement with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for the global development and commercialization of the vegf Trap for the treatment of eye disease by local administration into the eye. The vegf Trap, currently in Phase I and Phase II clinical trials, is a protein that binds to or “traps” the vascular endothelial growth factor (vegf) and blocks its activity. Bayer has the contractual right to market the drug outside the United States if approved by the competent authorities.
We apply life cycle management measures to our marketed products to expand the scope of possible treatment opportunities by identifying new indications and improved formulations. Adalat ® is a prime example of successful life cycle management: twenty-one years after the expiration of patent protection for the active ingredient nifedipine, its key component, the drug generated 657 million in sales in 2006.
Research and development activities of the Consumer Care Division focus on the identification, development and market introduction of non-prescription (over-the-counter = otc) products. These efforts are centered around support for existing brands and the implementation of product-related, clinical and regulatory development strategies that offer the opportunity to successfully exploit new technologies, the expansion of indications for existing products and the reclassification of current prescription medicines as otc products.
Our Diabetes Care division focuses its research and development activities primarily on strengthening its core product lines and on expanding into high growth/high margin segments of the market. We achieve this through internal development and collaborations with suppliers of mass market, user-friendly whole blood glucose monitoring systems. In addition, we are actively researching a minimally invasive system that requires only a small blood sample and has a short testing time. Beyond these research and development projects we are investing in technologies that will allow glucose monitoring without painful invasive sampling of body fluids. Our long-term aim is to allow monitoring without painful invasive blood sampling. One example of our expansion into new segments of the diabetes market is the acquisition in July 2006 of u.s.-based Metrika, headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. Metrika manufactures and markets a new type of handheld diabetes monitoring system capable of measuring the long-term diabetes parameter HbA1c , also known as glycated hemoglobin.
The Animal Health division focuses its research and development activities on antimicrobials, parasiticides and active ingredients useful for the treatment of non-infectious diseases such as renal failure, pain management, oncology and congestive heart failure.

 


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Bayer CropScience
In 2006, 614 million – or about 26.7 percent of the Bayer Group’s research and development budget – was spent at CropScience.
CropScience has at its disposal a global network of research and development facilities. Crop Protection operates major research and development facilities in Monheim and Frankfurt, Germany; Lyon and Sophia Antipolis, France; Stilwell, Kansas and Raleigh, North Carolina, United States; and Yuki City, Japan.
While research is concentrated at specialized sites, development activities range from central facilities to field testing stations across the globe, enabling product testing in the relevant geographical areas.
Crop Protection Research and Development is responsible for the identification and development of innovative, safe and economically sustainable solutions in crop protection. Research covers activities to identify new active ingredients that can be developed as insecticides, fungicides or herbicides and/or other areas in modern crop protection. In addition to classical chemistry, biology and biochemistry, modern technologies such as combinatorial chemistry, ultra-high-throughput-screening, genomics and bioinformatics play an important role in the identification of new lead structures. Collaborations with third parties supplement our internal research activities.
Once a compound is identified for development, its biological, environmental and toxicological profile, as well as its economic potential, is assessed. Suitable candidates are launched in the market after having obtained the required regulatory approvals.
We actively support our products through continuous life cycle management. This includes the development of new formulations for existing active ingredients and products, e.g., expanding their applicability to additional crops or improving handling and facilitating application of the product.
The following new active ingredients were launched in 2006 or are expected to be launched by Crop Protection in 2007, subject to regulatory approval.
         
New active ingredient   Indication   Status
Fluopicolide
  Fungicide   Market introduction 2006
 
       
Flubendiamide
  Insecticide   Market introduction expected in 2007
 
       
Tembotrione
  Herbicide   Market introduction expected in 2007
 
       
Fluopicolide (major brand: Infinito®) belongs to a new chemical class named acylpicolides. Products containing this novel chemical compound have been developed for use to control oomycete diseases in potatoes, vegetables and ornamentals. The new mode of action is intended to enable farmers to control oomycete diseases that are resistant to standard fungicides.
Flubendiamide (major brand: Belt®) represents a novel chemical family of substituted phthalic acid diamides with potent insecticidal activity. Belt® is a new insecticide for foliar application in annual and perennial crops, offering protection primarily against all major Lepidoptera species. Belt® is being co-developed by Nikon Nohyaku Company and Bayer CropScience for worldwide use on vegetables, fruits, cotton, corn, beans, tea and a number of other crops.

 


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Research and Development
Tembotrione (major brand: Laudis®) from the triketone chemical family is a new herbicide for foliar application in corn plants. Tembotrione is a leaf-active substance that eliminates the protection of chlorophyll against UV light in weeds. Tembotrione is applied together with a safener component which enables the corn plants to metabolize the active substance and maintain the carotinoid layer protecting the corn plant against UV light, thereby offering a broad-spectrum weed control.
The molecules discovered by Crop Protection research are also tested and evaluated in Environmental Science for potential development. Molecules from other companies may be tested and purchased if suitable. Development projects include passive treatments (gels, baits) and formulations to control insects, as well as new herbicide products and new mixtures of fungicides for the turf and ornamental market segments.
In 2006, the key launches of Environmental Science were the fungicide TartanTM (trifloxystrobin triadimefon-based) and the insecticide ForbidTM (spiromesifen-based) in the green industry and the sprayable Quickbayt® (imidacloprid-based) for fly control in professional pest control applications. In 2007 we expect to launch, among others, the insecticide Exemptor® (thiacloprid-based) in the green industry in Europe, as well as a new type of termite control granules (imidacloprid-based) and a new 2,4-d, dicamba-based herbicide for the pest and weed consumer market in the United States.
Research activities in the BioScience Business Group are based on plant technology and modern breeding methods. The primary BioScience research facilities are located in Lyon, France; Haelen, Netherlands; Ghent, Belgium; and Potsdam, Germany. Our main development sites are in the United States, Canada, Brazil, India and Australia.
Research and development in this field is mainly geared toward improving the agronomic and qualitative properties of crops. The technologies used include all relevant tools – from identifying the gene of interest to developing it – necessary to improve key crops (cotton, canola and rice) for growers and industrial partners. Various projects at the research and development stage are pursuing the goal of improving the agronomic traits of crops with respect to herbicide tolerance, disease and insect resistance, harvest yields and quality. Our researchers are also searching for ways to develop plants that are highly resistant to stress factors such as extreme temperatures. At the same time, we conduct detailed analyses of crops with a view to producing special raw materials for industrial and consumer applications.
Our business growth in BioScience is supported by the continuous introduction of new products. In 2006 we introduced eight new cotton grades and four types of rice. We expect to launch several new cotton grades and one new type of canola in 2007.

 


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Bayer MaterialScience
In 2006 MaterialScience spent 227 million, not including joint development activities with customers, to further expand its position as a technology leader and global supplier of customized, high-quality materials and systems solutions. This corresponds to 9.9 percent of the Group’s research and development expenses. In the five Material-Science business units – Polyurethanes; Polycarbonates; Thermoplastic Polyurethanes; Coatings, Adhesives, Sealants and Inorganic Basic Chemicals – state-of-the-art technologies and production processes are used to implement new products and applications in close cooperation with our customers and external partners.
For example, our Polycarbonates business unit strives to develop new formulations and applications for its products and constantly improve its manufacturing processes. We are currently working further on the optimization of our new polycarbonate melt manufacturing process.
In product development, we focus our activities on developing new blends, refining material for optical data storage, developing modified base materials for polycarbonate sheets and modifying the surface of polycarbonates using various coating technologies. Examples include the further development of our Bayblend® FR series and Makrolon® with improved flame-resistant properties for the electronics and automotive industries. In the area of polycarbonate films, we are developing value added films (comprising new resins as well as surface-modified films) to enter new market segments such as soft touch coated Makrofol® films for interior parts used in the automotive industry and mobile phone housings.
The main areas of innovation in the Polyurethanes business unit are currently the development of new or improved polyether polyol types and blends as well as the improvement of manufacturing processes. Polyurethanes concentrates its research and development efforts with respect to aromatic isocyanates on improving existing products and technologies for their manufacture. Our tdi facility in Caojing, China, which is planned to come on stream in 2009, will use such improved manufacturing processes.
In product development, we focus our activities on extending the applications for new composite materials. We also work to improve flame resistance and thermal insulation properties. We develop other materials for durability aspects using various technologies. Examples here include the development of Multitec® for use in bathtubs as well as hoods and fenders for agricultural vehicles.
The Coatings, Adhesives, Sealants business unit focuses its research and development activities on developing polyurethane raw materials for the formulation of high performance coatings, adhesives and sealants, such as aliphatic and aromatic polyisocyanates and resin components. An important area of research is raw materials for waterborne and thus more environmentally friendly coatings systems. We are also working together with the u.s. company InPhase Technologies on the development of new photoactive polymers for holographic data-storage applications. InPhase’s first generation product by the name of Tapestry® will be a memory storage medium holding 300 gb of data. In collaboration with the British coatings manufacturer E. Wood, we are developing a polyurea system based on a special aliphatic polyisocyanate. This new formulation is used for the rehabilitation of drinking water pipes.

 


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The bulk of research and development activities conducted by the Thermoplastic Polyurethanes business unit consists of developing high performance thermoplastic polyurethane resins and films, such as highly uv-stable and transparent grades for foils in solar modules.
The processes and plants of our Inorganic Basic Chemicals business unit, which supply MaterialScience with chlorine and inorganic intermediates, are continuously enhanced and optimized while keeping in mind environmental compatibility. The main area of innovation in chlorine production is currently the development of the oxygen depolarized cathode (odc) to significantly reduce power consumption. We intend to use this technology to supply the isocyanate production in Caojing, China, with chlorine beginning in 2008.
To exploit profitable business opportunities for the future, the New Business section of MaterialScience constantly tracks and evaluates new technological and market trends. The most promising ideas are channeled into research and development projects. These projects are then either implemented in cooperation with the business units or developed within independent companies as part of the so-called greenhouse concept. In 2006, for example, the start-up enterprise lyttron was established for the production of three-dimensional molded electroluminescent films. Our internal activities are supplemented by collaborations with universities, institutes and start-up companies around the world.
Bayer Technology Services
For engineering and technological issues, particularly in the area of process technology, all subgroups work closely together with Bayer Technology Services. This service company develops innovative technology platforms for the Bayer Group, helping the subgroups to sustain their performance. These enabling technologies shorten development times and support the manufacture of new products, system solutions and production processes in the subgroups.
A strategic core element in this connection is international insourcing, which involves the acquisition of know-how. This ranges from country-specific expertise in the implementation of capital expenditure projects through the global exploitation of innovations and public research funding to the recruitment of top international experts and the establishment of collaborations with other companies and research institutes.
Bayer Innovation
Innovation topics outside of the subgroups’ core activities are investigated, evaluated and developed into feasible new businesses for the Bayer Group by Bayer Innovation GmbH (big). big’s goal is to incorporate Bayer’s core competencies in the fields of health care, nutrition and materials into projects that complement the company’s business portfolio, and to facilitate access to new growth markets.
One example of this is the manufacture of plant-made pharmaceuticals (pmp). big is charged with coordinating the Bayer Group’s pmp activities. Through the acquisition in January 2006 of biotech company Icon Genetics AG, big possesses a pmp technology platform that enables us to offer market-oriented solutions for the biopharmaceutical business through magnicon® technology. The full potential of this technology platform is being evaluated in close cooperation with Bayer HealthCare, Bayer CropScience, Bayer MaterialScience, Bayer Technology Services and external partners.

 


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Sustainable Development
We steer the sustainable alignment of the Bayer Group on the basis of our mission statement, values and leadership principles. Our existing committees for sustainable development and for health, safety and environmental issues continued their work in 2006, developing a Group-wide Sustainable Development Policy that is enacted through corporate directives and positions, our voluntary commitments and our sustainable development performance management system. It applies in all countries and regions of the world in which Bayer is present. The subgroups and service companies are charged with implementing this policy on a day-to-day basis.
Our performance management efforts are brought together in the Sustainable Development Program 2006+, which combines the objectives of the subgroups and service companies and is divided into several fields of activity, including Innovation, Product Stewardship, Excellence in Corporate Management, Social Responsibility and Responsibility for the Environment. Within these fields, specific measures are assigned to each goal to ensure that they are realized on schedule.
During the reporting period, we matched or further improved most of the key performance indicators. There was an increase in environmental and transportation incidents. These incidents have been analyzed and evaluated, and the resulting measures are currently being implemented or planned.
We once again adjusted to changing conditions and new requirements in 2006.
For example, we made the necessary preparations for the inclusion of Schering AG’s sites in the collection and evaluation of environmental and safety data for 2006.
We also further improved our reporting. Our Sustainable Development Report, which now appears annually, was published largely on the basis of the “Global Reporting Initiative” (gri) guidelines, receiving the “German Environmental Reporting Award 2006(dura) from the German Chamber of Certified Accountants. The Sustainable Development Report 2006 is scheduled to appear in May 2007. In 2006 we continued our commitment as an Organizational Stakeholder of the gri, which was established by the United Nations. Since January 2007 a Bayer representative has been a member of the gri’s Stakeholder Council, which decides on the initiative’s strategy and policy.
We renewed our commitment to the global Responsible Care initiative of the chemical industry with the signing by our Management Board Chairman of the Responsible Care Global Charter of the International Council of Chemical Associations (icca) in January 2006. Our revised Position on Responsible Care has been confirmed by our subgroups and service companies.
It is important to us to participate in the shaping of framework conditions. Bayer is keenly involved in both national and international debates on environmental and consumer protection strategies and regulations. With our commitment to product stewardship, we also support the goals of the e.u. chemicals policy (reach) to ensure the safety of everyone who comes into contact with our products throughout their life cycle, as well as to further improve consumer safety and environmental protection. That is why we participated constructively in the revision of the e.u. chemicals policy with our own proposals for balancing environmental protection and consumer protection with competitiveness. We also initiated a process aimed at preparing our company for reach.

 


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Sustainable Development
We endorse the goals of the e.u. strategy for improving health and the environment (scale), which focuses particularly on children’s health. However, it is essential that all relevant influencing factors, and especially genuine health problems, be taken into account. The scientific assessment of risks must remain the basis for decision-making, and existing regulations should be kept in mind.
                         
Category       Key Performance Indicator   2005 1   20061,2
Health, Safety and
Environment
                       
                     
Health and Safety
      Industrial injuries to Bayer employees resulting in at least one day’s absence (number of injuries per million hours worked)     2.7       2.8  
 
                       
 
      Reportable industrial injuries to Bayer employees (number of injuries per million hours worked)     4.0
      4.3
 
 
                       
 
      Major environmental incidents     2       8  
 
                       
 
      Transportation incidents     3       9  
 
                       
Emissions and waste
      Greenhouse gases, CO2 equivalents
(million metric tons/year)
    3.8       3.8  
 
                       
 
      Volatile organic compounds (VOC)
(thousand metric tons/year)
    3.4       2.9  
 
                       
 
      Total phosphorus in waste water
(thousand metric tons/year)
    0.7       0.8  
 
                       
 
      Total nitrogen in waste water (thousand metric tons/year)     0.6       0.7  
 
                       
 
      Total organic carbon (TOC) (thousand metric tons/year)     1.5       1.5  
 
                       
 
      Hazardous waste generated (million metric tons/year)     0.4       0.3  
 
                       
 
      Hazardous waste landfilled (million metric tons/year)     0.2       0.1  
 
                       
Use of resources
      Water use (million m3/day)     1.2       1.2  
 
                       
 
      Energy use (petajoules [1015 joules]/year)     82       91  
                     
 
                       
Employees and Society
                       
                     
Diversity and opportunity
      Percentage of women in Bayer Group senior management 3     3.9       3.8  
 
                       
 
      Number of nationalities in Bayer Group senior management 3     17       17  
 
                       
Training and development
      Training costs in percent of personnel expenses     2.3       2.2  
 
                       
Employment
      Number of employees by region as of December 31 (permanent and temporary)                
 
                       
 
      Europe     45,700       57,800  
 
                       
 
      North America     13,100       17,200  
 
                       
 
      Asia/Pacific     13,200       17,300  
 
                       
 
      Latin America/Africa/Middle East     10,600       13,700  
                         
 
2005 figures restated
 
1   excluding H.C. Starck, Wolff Walsrode and the Diagnostics Division
 
2   including Schering AG as of June 23, 2006
 
3   At year end 2006 no former Schering employees had yet been named to the Bayer Group Leadership Circle.
Biotechnology and nanotechnology offer enormous potential for essential products and applications in the areas of health care, nutrition and environmental protection. For example, biotechnology opens up new options for the efficient and targeted manufacture of renewable raw materials. The statements contained in our Position on Responsible Care also apply to the use of biotechnology and nanotechnology at Bayer. This means in particular that safety and environmental protection have the same standing as quality and cost-effectiveness. In the field of nanotechnology, we are involved in the “Nanocare” and “tracer” safety research projects of the German Ministry of Education and Research.

 


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72  Management Report
      Bayer Annual Report 2006
Working for climate protection
Climate change is a major global challenge. Bayer is facing up to this challenge and intensifying its efforts to improve its greenhouse gas emissions profile. In this context, we see various ways to contribute to reducing carbon dioxide emissions. We support new technologies and research projects that promote the development of biofuels and the use of biomass, for example, in technical applications. In our own production operations we use innovative process technologies that reduce direct carbon dioxide emissions, one example being the conversion of our chlorine electrolysis plants from the amalgam to the modern membrane process. We offer products that contribute to significantly reducing energy consumption, such as our polyurethanes used as thermal insulation materials in buildings or refrigerators. Also of note is the technology transfer we facilitate through direct investment in countries such as China. The application of ultra-modern technologies there reduces greenhouse gas emissions in the country that is currently registering the world’s fastest economic growth.
At the European level we advocate an emissions trading system that does justice both to the interests of industry and the need to protect the Earth’s climate.
In the United States, Bayer Corporation is voluntarily taking part in the emissions trading program of the Chicago Climate Exchange (ccx) and committed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by one percent a year between 2003 and 2006. This goal was significantly exceeded and it is planned to extend the commitment through 2010.
We represent our positions in numerous industry associations, initiatives and organizations that work for sustainable and responsible development, such as the United Nations’ Global Compact network, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (wbcsd), the German sustainable development forum “econsense” and the csr Alliance for the implementation of the e.u. sustainable development strategy. We are also active in the business leadership initiative “3 c: Combat Climate Change,” as well as in the Climate Change Dialogue organized by globe International.
Sustainable investment
Bayer stock is included in various indices and investment funds that focus on companies with a responsible corporate policy.
The company’s shares have been included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index World (djsi World) continuously since it was established in 1999. Bayer stock has also been listed in the European Dow Jones Sustainability Index stoxx (djsi stoxx) since its inception in 2001. Furthermore, our shares been included in the benchmark sustainability indices of the ftse4 Good series since it was launched by the Financial Times and the London Stock Exchange in 2001. Analysts at the Storebrand Principal Fund recently again rated Bayer as one of the top companies in its peer group, awarding it the ranking “Best in Class – Environmental and Social Performance.” In addition, our shares were again listed in the French aspi Eurozone Index in 2006. As in 2005, Bayer was last year named “Best in Class” as one of the world’s leading companies in the area of climate protection. Consequently, the company is once again listed in the Climate Leadership Index – the world’s first climate protection index – and was rated best in its industry sector. This was announced by the investor group Carbon Disclosure Project (cdp) on September 18, 2006 in New York.

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006
      Management Report  73
Corporate Social Responsibility
Bayer again underscored its role as a good corporate citizen in 2006 with a number of activities in the fields of education and research, environment and nature, health and social needs, and sports and culture. We improved the content of these programs and expanded them to include additional countries. We also launched various new initiatives.
Bayer und National Geographic, the world’s largest non-profit science organization, came together in 2006 to commit 250,000 through the Global Exploration Fund in support of nine research projects aimed at protecting drinking water. In field studies in all regions of the world, scientists are undertaking water studies and investigating the recovery and treatment of water. In connection with our Making Science Make Sense program, more than 1,200 Bayer employees in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Japan and, since 2006, France are supporting scientific education by regularly volunteering their time to help teach in elementary schools. The various Bayer foundations assist both leading scientists and talented young researchers. In 2006 Professor Alois Fürstner from the Max Planck Institute for Carbon Research in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany, received the Otto Bayer Prize for his outstanding achievements in the field of natural substance synthesis. At the end of 2006, a total of 59 students and young people who have completed vocational training programs and were gaining career experience outside Germany were being supported by the Bayer foundations. We signed an agreement with Tongji University in Shanghai to fund a Chair for Sustainable Development. According to the terms of the agreement, Bayer will provide material and financial funding totaling us$ 1 million for an initial period of five years. To supplement the Endowed Chair, scholarships for outstanding students from both industrial and developing nations and suitable projects are planned. The company has also agreed to contribute its scientific and technical expertise to the teaching programs.
Bayer also supported the United Nations Environment Programme (unep) in the organization of a global children’s environmental conference from August 26 to 30, 2006 in Putrajaya, Malaysia, providing personnel, material and financial resources. Furthermore, the company provided funding to help develop the structures for the United Nations’ global youth environmental activities through the establishment of additional regional networks for young environmentalists in Asia and the organization of the first ever youth environmental conferences in Latin America and Africa. The Young Environmental Envoy Program, which in 2006 saw Bayer again invite about 50 young people from Asia, Latin America, Africa and eastern Europe to attend a week-long study trip to Germany, was expanded to include Malaysia and Vietnam – increasing to 16 the number of participating countries. The company spent a total of 1 million last year on activities organized in the context of its partnership with unep, including a global children’s painting competition, a photographic competition in eastern Europe and the publication of the environmental magazine Tunza. At a news conference held in Leverkusen on March 20, 2006, Bayer and unep drew a positive balance of the partnership’s first two years.
In Colombia we launched the “Ludoteca” (play bus) project in 2006. Bayer employees tour the country in a bus together with experts from the child protection organization “Día del Niño” (Day of the Child), each month giving an average of 2,000 socially disadvantaged children what is usually their only opportunity to play. The aim is to use play

 


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74  Management Report
      Bayer Annual Report 2006
as a means of teaching the children important physical, intellectual and social skills. In India, too, we launched initiatives aimed at protecting children. Bayer CropScience works together with Naandi Foundation in the fight against child labor and poverty. The two partners see educational qualifications and vocational training as the key to improving the quality of life over the long term. Bayer CropScience therefore particularly supports the reintegration into education of children who have previously been employed in agriculture. On behalf of Bayer, Naandi Foundation has set up several Creative Learning Centers in which about 700 children are now being prepared to attend regular schools. Bayer CropScience also supports continuing education for teachers at the state-run village schools and provides teaching materials for scientific curricula.
In 2006 we facilitated family planning options for many people in the world’s less affluent regions by supplying contraceptive systems for sale at cost price. In cooperation with state and social organizations worldwide, we provided about 60 million cycles of oral contraceptives and roughly 10 million units of injectable contraceptives, as well as implants and intrauterine systems, and organized accompanying information campaigns.
Last year again, Bayer provided rapid assistance to people in emergency situations. In May we made available medicines, food, drinking water, clothing and financial support with a total value of 500,000 for victims of the earthquake on the Indonesian island of Java. Bayer HealthCare donated shipments of its Cipro® antibiotic with a wholesale value of more than us$ 25 million to the aid organization map (Medical Assistance Programs) International for distribution to hospitals in the world’s poorest countries.
Bayer has been a main sponsor of the German Association for Disabled Sports (dbs) since 2000. In 2006 we extended this commitment for a further year.

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006
      Management Report  75
Compensation Report
The members of the Board of Management receive a fixed salary, composed of a base salary and a fixed supplement. Additionally, remuneration in kind and other benefits, and variable compensation are granted. The variable compensation comprises a variable bonus and the possible payments resulting from participation in long-term stock-based compensation programs. Since 2005, the variable bonus for a given year is tied to the attainment of the Group target based on ebitda. For the year 2006, the variable bonus is calculated partly according to the Group’s ebitda margin before special items, and partly according to the average target attainment of the HealthCare, CropScience and Material-Science subgroups. The latter is based mainly on the subgroups’ target attainment measured by ebitda before special items as well as on a qualitative appraisal in relation to the market and competitors.
The direct remuneration of members of the Board of Management in 2006 amounted to 8,143,822 (2005: 7,064,828), comprising 2,260,400 (2005: 1,985,580) in base salaries and 1,096,556 (2005: 837,073) in fixed supplements, 4,644,475 (2005: 4,085,754) in variable bonuses plus 142,391 (2005: 156,421) of remuneration in kind and other benefits. Remuneration in kind mainly consists of values assigned to certain benefits in kind in accordance with German taxation guidelines, such as on the use of company cars.
Members of the Board of Management were permitted to participate in a cash-settlement-based stock option program, offered through 2004, if they placed their personal investment in Bayer stocks in a special deposit account. Under this previous program, a total of 25,290 instruments with a fair value of 1,806,718 remained outstanding as of December 31, 2006.
Since 2005, the members of the Board of Management have participated in the long-term stock-based compensation program Aspire i (2005 and 2006 tranches). Participation in this program is linked to membership of a Group Leadership Circle, not to the contract of service as a member of the Board of Management. Further details of this program are presented in Note [26.1] “Stock-based compensation.”
The entitlements earned in 2006 relate to the 2006 parts of the respective three-year performance periods of the long-term stock-based compensation programs granted in current and previous years. The changes in the value of previously existing entitlements under long-term stock-based compensation programs that were earned prior to 2006 are shown separately. They result from the upward trend in the price of Bayer stock in 2006. Additionally, the fair value of the stock-based compensation as of the grant date in 2006 is given separately.
The table below shows the remuneration components of those individual members of our Board of Management who actively served in the course of 2006. In 2006, the remuneration of our chief financial officer was raised to recognize the special tasks of this position.

 


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76  Management Report
      Bayer Annual Report 2006
Remuneration of the members of the Board of Management
                                                         
            Werner                     Wolfgang              
            Wenning     Klaus Kühn     Udo Oels1     Plischke2     Richard Pott     Total  
                                                       
                                           
Base salary
    2006       748,872       412,236       343,526       343,530       412,236       2,260,400  
                                           
    2005       748,872       412,236       412,236             412,236       1,985,580  
 
                                         
Fixed supplement
    2006       325,132       316,366       142,205       142,206       170,647       1,096,556  
 
                                         
    2005       325,132       170,647       170,647             170,647       837,073  
 
                                         
Variable bonus
    2006       1,525,086       1,034,615       567,335       689,745       827,694       4,644,475  
 
                                         
 
    2005       1,554,615       843,713       843,713             843,713       4,085,754  
 
                                         
Remuneration in kind and other benefits
    2006       47,926       35,571       9,594       18,163       31,137       142,391  
 
                                         
 
    2005       40,169       35,266       41,942             39,044       156,421  
 
                                         
Directly effected remuneration
    2006       2,647,016       1,798,788       1,062,660       1,193,644       1,441,714       8,143,822  
 
                                         
 
    2005       2,668,788       1,461,862       1,468,538             1,465,640       7,064,828  
 
                                         
Stock-based compensation entitlements earned in the respective year
    2006       820,514       480,609       538,181       193,188       461,939       2,494,431  
 
                                         
 
    2005       495,504       285,748       285,748             284,248       1,351,248  
 
                                         
Change in value of existing entitlements
    2006       339,733       229,617       104,125       66,262       164,952       904,689  
 
                                         
 
    2005       169,289       99,693       99,693             98,055       466,730  
 
                                         
 
1   until April 28, 2006
 
2   effective March 1, 2006
The fair value of the stock-based compensation as of the grant dates for 2006 and 2005, respectively, is shown in the following table. The entitlements earned in 2006 under the 2006 and 2005 stock-based compensation are included in the preceding table under “stock-based compensation entitlements earned in the respective year.”
                                                         
            Werner                     Wolfgang              
          Wenning     Klaus Kühn     Udo Oels1     Plischke2     Richard Pott     Total  
                                                       
 
                                         
Fair value of newly granted stock-based compensation as of grant date
    2006       268,113       181,886       40,419       117,597       145,509       753,524  
 
                                         
 
    2005       253,636       137,652       137,652             137,652       666,592  
 
                                         
 
1   until April 28, 2006
 
2   effective March 1, 2006
Pension provisions for the current members of the Board of Management amounted to 29,564,478 (2005: 32,218,996). Active members of the Board of Management are entitled to receive a pension from the age of 60 in an annual amount equal to at least 30 percent of the last yearly fixed salary. This percentage increases depending on years of service as a Board of Management member and, according to the inception of the respective service contract, is capped between 60 and 80 percent. We refer to the maximum such percentage a member of the Board of Management can reach as his final target pension level.

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006
      Management Report  77
Compensation Report
We currently pay former and retired members of the Board of Management a monthly pension equal to 80 percent of the last monthly base salary received while in service. The pensions paid to former members of the Board of Management or their widows are normally reassessed every three years and adjusted taking into account the development of consumer prices. These amounts are in addition to any amounts they receive as a result of their participation in the Bayer pension plan described below. The current service cost for pension entitlements of those individual members of our Board of Management who actively served in the course of 2006 was as follows:
                                                         
            Werner                     Wolfgang              
            Wenning     Klaus Kühn     Udo Oels1     Plischke2     Richard Pott     Total  
                                                       
 
                                         
Current service cost for pension entitlements earned in the respective year
    2006       398,564       1,651,294             1,644,517       233,284       3,927,659  
 
                                         
 
    2005       311,158       420,046                   186,600       917,804  
 
                                         
 
1   until April 28, 2006
 
2   effective March 1, 2006
For active Board of Management members a general severance indemnity clause, with the following main elements applies:
If a member of the Board of Management is not offered a new service contract upon expiration of his existing service contract because he is not reappointed to the Board of Management, or if the member is removed from the Board of Management in the absence of grounds for termination without notice, he will receive a monthly bridging allowance amounting to 80 percent of his last monthly fixed salary for a period of 60 months from the date of expiration of his service contract less the period for which the Board of Management member was released from his duties on full pay. Special arrangements apply in the event of a change of control; for details see page 56 f.
Emoluments to retired members of the Board of Management and their surviving dependents amounted to 10,924,768 (2005: 10,323,009). Pension provisions for former members of the Board of Management and their surviving dependents amounted to 117,866,846 (2005: 115,972,457).
There were no loans to members of the Board of Management outstanding as of December 31, 2006, nor any repayments of such loans during the year.

 


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78  Management Report
      Bayer Annual Report 2006
Compensation of the Supervisory Board
The compensation of the Supervisory Board is based on the provisions of the Articles of Incorporation, the current version of which was adopted by the stockholders at the Annual Stockholders’ Meeting on April 29, 2005. This provides that, in addition to reimbursement of their expenses, each member of the Supervisory Board receives fixed annual remuneration of 60,000 and a variable annual remuneration component. The variable remuneration component is based on corporate performance in terms of the gross cash flow reported in the Group financial statements for the fiscal year. The members of the Supervisory Board receive 2,000 for every 50,000,000 or part thereof by which the gross cash flow exceeds 3,100,000,000, but the variable component for each member may not exceed 30,000. In accordance with the provisions of the German Corporate Governance Code, additional remuneration is paid to the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Supervisory Board and for chairing and membership of committees. The Chairman of the Supervisory Board receives three times the basic remuneration, while the Vice Chairman receives one-and-a-half times the basic remuneration. Members of the Supervisory Board who are also members of a committee receive an additional one quarter of the amount, with those chairing a committee receiving a further quarter. However, no member of the Supervisory Board may receive total remuneration exceeding three times the basic remuneration. If changes are made to the Supervisory Board and its committees during the fiscal year, members receive remuneration on a pro-rated basis. No remuneration or benefits were paid for personal services, in particular, the provision of consultancy or intermediary services. The Company has purchased insurance for the members of the Supervisory Board to cover their legal liability arising from their service on the Supervisory Board.
In addition to their remuneration as members of the Supervisory Board, those employee representatives who are employees of Bayer Group companies receive compensation unrelated to their service on the Supervisory Board. The total amount of such compensation was 647,813.
There were no loans to members of the Supervisory Board outstanding as of December 31, 2006, nor any repayments of such loans during the year.
The remuneration of the individual members of the Supervisory Board is shown in the table in the Corporate Governance Report on page 16.

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006
      Management Report  79
Risk Report
Risk management
Business operations necessarily involve opportunities and risks. Effective risk management is therefore a key factor in maintaining the company’s value over the long term.
The management of opportunities and risks at Bayer is an integral part of the Group-wide corporate governance system, not the task of one particular organizational unit. Key elements of the risk management system are the planning and controlling process, Group regulations and the reporting system. In regular conferences the company’s results and its potential opportunities and risks are discussed, and targets and necessary actions are agreed upon.
The Bayer Group implemented the requirements of section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act regarding the system of internal controls. Please refer to the Corporate Governance report on page 14 ff. for more information.
Corporate Auditing monitors the effectiveness of, and compliance with, the internal management and control system. The effectiveness of the risk management system is audited at regular intervals.
In addition, within the year-end audit the external auditor issues an opinion on the risk management system and briefs the Group Management Board and the Supervisory Board on the outcomes of these evaluations. These outcomes are taken into account in the continuing enhancement of our risk management system.
To counter risks arising from legal or other requirements, we make our decisions and engineer our business processes on the basis of comprehensive legal advice provided both by our own experts and by acknowledged external specialists.
We have purchased insurance coverage – where it is available on economically acceptable terms – in order to minimize the financial impact of possible compensation claims. The level of this coverage is continuously re-examined.
Overall business risks
Pharmaceutical product prices are subject to regulatory controls in many markets. Some governments intervene directly in setting prices. In addition, in some markets major purchasers of pharmaceutical products have the economic power to exert substantial pressure on prices. Price controls limit the financial benefits of growth in the pharmaceutical segment and the introduction of new products.
Sales of our crop protection products are particularly subject to weather conditions and fluctuations in crop prices. In addition, the increasing use of plant biotechnology could reduce market demand for some of our agrochemical products.
The performance of our MaterialScience subgroup is affected by cyclicality of the industries in which they operate. Low periods in the business cycles are characterized by decreasing demand and excess capacity, leading to price pressure and intense competition. This may result in volatile operating margins across the business cycle and to operating losses in these businesses. Expectations of growth, especially in Asian economies, encourage producers to increase their production capacities. Future growth in demand may not be sufficient to absorb those capacity additions without significant downward pressure on prices.

 


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      Bayer Annual Report 2006
The early identification of economic trends or regulatory changes forms a particularly important part of our business management. Our analyses of the global economy and forecasts of medium-term economic development are documented in detail on a quarterly basis and used to support operational business planning. For a summary forecast, see Future Perspectives – Economic Outlook.
Product development risks
The Bayer Group’s competitive positions, sales and earnings depend significantly on the development of commercially viable new products and production technologies. We therefore devote substantial resources to research and development. Because of the lengthy development processes, technological challenges, regulatory requirements and intense competition, we cannot assure that all of the products we are currently developing, or may begin to develop in the future, will actually reach the market or achieve commercial success in a timely manner.
Our life science segments are subject to particularly strict regulatory regimes. Increasing regulatory requirements, such as those governing clinical or (eco-) toxicological trials, may increase product development costs and the time it takes to bring new products to market.
Adverse effects of our products that may be discovered after regulatory approval or registration despite thorough prior testing may lead to a partial or complete withdrawal from the market, due either to regulatory actions or our voluntary decision to stop marketing a product.
To ensure an efficient and effective use of resources, Bayer has implemented an organizational structure and process organization comprising functional departments, working groups and reporting structures to monitor internal research and development projects.
Patent risks
We are involved in lawsuits to enforce patent rights in our products. In particular, generic drug manufacturers may seek marketing approval for pharmaceutical products currently under patent protection by challenging the validity or enforceability of a patent. We may also be required to defend ourselves against charges of infringement of patent or proprietary rights of third parties.
When one of our patents expires, or if a patent defense is unsuccessful, we are likely to face increased competition from generic products entering the market.
To minimize the risk of infringement of our patents, our legal department regularly reviews the patents situation in conjunction with the relevant functional departments and watches for potential patent infringement attempts by other companies so that legal action can be taken if necessary.
Procurement market risks
Our MaterialScience subgroup uses significant amounts of petrochemical raw materials and energy in its manufacturing processes. The prices of raw materials and energy vary with market conditions and may be highly volatile. There have been in the past, and may be in the future, periods during which we are not able to pass along the full amounts of any cost increases to our customers.
We purchase strategic raw materials on the basis of long-term contracts with multiple suppliers wherever possible. Supply agreements are centrally negotiated to achieve more favorable prices and supply terms for the Group as a whole.

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006
      Management Report  81
Risk Report
Operational risks
Production at some of our manufacturing facilities could be adversely affected by occurrences such as technical failures or disruptions to raw material deliveries. In particular, our biological products business employs complicated production processes that are more likely to experience disruption. For this reason all production processes and material inputs are tested continuously by the relevant functional departments.
The Bayer Group is increasingly dependent on information technology systems to support business processes as well as internal and external communications. Despite all technical precautions, any significant disruption of these systems may result in loss of data and/or impairment of production and business processes.
From time to time, we acquire all or a portion of an established business and combine it with our existing business units. Integration of existing and newly acquired businesses requires difficult decisions, e.g. regarding staffing levels and reengineering of business processes, which are critical for a successful integration of the acquired business and realization of planned synergies. All such acquisitions are supported by integration teams.
Furthermore, in the European Union a new regulation on chemicals (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization of Chemicals, reach) was adopted in December 2006 that becomes effective in June 2007. It could trigger a significant increase in administration and in the testing and assessment of all chemicals used, leading to increased costs and reduced operating margins for some product. All subgroups launched reach implementation projects to coordinate the implementation and avoid/reduce disadvantages for the business.
Product and environmental risks
Bayer‘s operations are subject to the operating risks associated with chemical manufacturing, including risks relating to the packaging, storage and transportation of raw materials, products and wastes. These operating risks have the potential to cause personal injury, property damage and/or environmental contamination, and may result in the shutdown of affected facilities.
Furthermore, the possibility of accidental contamination of our crop protection products or the presence of unintended trace amounts of genetically modified organisms in agricultural products and/or foodstuffs cannot be completely excluded.
We address product and environmental risks by way of suitable quality assurance measures. An integrated quality, health, environmental and safety management system ensures process stability. In addition, we are committed to the international Responsible Care initiative of the chemical industry and report regularly on our own safety and environmental management system.
Exchange rate risks
As a global enterprise, Bayer conducts a significant portion of its operations in foreign currencies. We guard against exchange rate risks by financing our business in local currencies and by hedging with derivative financial instruments that are employed solely for this purpose in line with the respective risk assessments and relevant detailed guidelines. For explanations on the use of derivative financial instruments, see Note [30] to the consolidated financial statements.

 


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Risk to pension obligations from capital market developments
Plan assets to cover future pension obligations are comprised of equity, fixed-income instruments, property and other assets. Declining capital returns can have a negative impact on the funding status of our plans. Therefore, additional contributions to the plans could be necessary in order to cover future pension obligations. Additionally, changes in demographic or biometric assumptions (e.g. mortality rates) could also have a negative impact on the funding status. For further details on underfunding of pensions and other post-retirement benefit obligations, see Note [25] to the consolidated financial statements.
To minimize this risk we are increasingly offering defined-contribution pension plans to our employees.
Legal risks
As a global company with a diverse business portfolio, the Bayer Group (including Bayer Schering Pharma AG, which previously was named Schering AG) is exposed to numerous legal risks, particularly in the areas of product liability, competition and antitrust law, patent disputes, tax assessments, and environmental matters. The outcome of any current or future proceedings cannot be predicted with certainty. It is therefore possible that legal or regulatory judgments could give rise to expenses that are not covered, or not fully covered, by insurers’ compensation payments and could significantly affect our revenues and earnings. (Please note that Bayer Schering Pharma AG and Schering-Plough Corporation, New Jersey, are unaffiliated companies that have been totally independent of each other for many years. The names “Bayer Schering Pharma” or “Schering” as used in this Annual Report always refer to Bayer Schering Pharma, AG, Berlin, Germany, or its predecessor, Schering AG, Berlin, Germany, respectively).
Legal proceedings currently considered to involve material risks are outlined below. The litigation referred to does not necessarily represent an exhaustive list.
Lipobay/Baycol: As of February 12, 2007, the number of Lipobay/Baycol cases pending against Bayer worldwide was approximately 1,870 (approximately 1,810 of them in the United States, including several class actions). As of February 12, 2007, Bayer had settled 3,152 Lipobay/Baycol cases worldwide without acknowledging any liability and resulting in settlement payments of approximately us$ 1,159 million. Bayer will continue to offer fair compensation to people who experienced serious side effects while taking Lipobay/Baycol, on a voluntary basis and without concession of liability. In the United States, five cases have been tried to date, all of which were found in Bayer’s favor.
After more than five years of litigation we are currently aware of fewer than 20 pending cases in the United States that in our opinion hold a potential for settlement, although we cannot rule out the possibility that additional cases involving serious side effects from Lipobay/Baycol may come to our attention. In addition, there could be further settlements of cases outside of the United States.
In the fiscal year 2006, Bayer recorded a 35 million charge to the operating result in respect of settlements already concluded or expected to be concluded and anticipated defense costs.

 


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Risk Report
Since the existing insurance coverage is exhausted, it is possible – depending on the future progress of the litigation – that Bayer could face further payments that are not covered by the accounting measures already taken. We will regularly review the possibility of further accounting measures depending on the progress of the litigation.
A group of stockholders has filed a class-action lawsuit claiming damages against Bayer AG and Bayer Corporation and two current and certain former managers. The suit alleges that Bayer violated u.s. Securities Laws By Making Misleading Statements, Prior To The Withdrawal Of Lipobay/Baycol From The Market, About The Product’S Commercial Prospects And, After Its Withdrawal, About The Related Potential Financial Liability. In 2005 The Court Dismissed With Prejudice The Claims Of Non-u.s. purchasers of Bayer AG stock on non-u.s. exchanges. Bayer believes it has meritorious defenses and will defend itself vigorously.
Cipro®: 39 putative class action lawsuits, one individual lawsuit and one consumer protection group lawsuit (which has been dismissed) against Bayer involving the medication Cipro® have been filed since July 2000 in the United States. The plaintiffs are suing Bayer and other companies also named as defendants, alleging that a settlement to end patent litigation reached in 1997 between Bayer and Barr Laboratories, Inc. violated antitrust regulations. The plaintiffs claim the alleged violation prevented the marketing of generic ciprofloxacin as of 1997. In particular, they are seeking triple damages under u.s. law. After the settlement with Barr the patent was the subject of a successful
re-examination by the u.s. Patent and Trademark Office and of successful defenses in u.s. federal courts. It has since expired.
All the actions pending in federal court were consolidated in federal district court in New York in a multidistrict litigation (mdl) proceeding. In 2005 the court had granted Bayer’s motion for summary judgment and dismissed all of plaintiffs’ claims in the mdl proceeding. The plaintiffs are appealing this decision. Further cases are pending before various state courts. Bayer believes that it has meritorious defenses and intends to defend itself vigorously.
Rubber, polyester polyols, urethane:
Proceedings involving product lines of the former Rubber Business Group
A number of investigations and proceedings by the respective authorities in the u.s., Canada and the e.u. concerning alleged anticompetitive conduct involving certain products in the rubber field have been resolved, while others remain pending. In the United States, Bayer AG has paid fines in two cases on the basis of agreements reached with the u.s. Department of Justice. In December 2005, the e.u. Commission imposed a fine of 58,9 million for antitrust violations in the area of rubber chemicals. The respective amount was paid at the end of March 2006. In July and August 2006 the u.s. Department of Justice, the e.u. Commission and the ccb notified Bayer AG that they had closed the respective epdm proceedings. In November 2006 the e.u. Commission closed the proceeding related to br/esbr by imposing fines against several companies and granting full amnesty to Bayer.
Numerous civil claims for damages including class actions are pending in the United States, and proposed class proceedings in Canada, against Bayer AG and certain of its subsidiaries as well as other companies. The lawsuits involve rubber chemicals, epdm, nbr and polychloroprene rubber (cr). Bayer has reached agreement to settle the bulk of

 


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the u.s. actions. The majority of these agreements have received court approval. These settlements do not resolve all of the pending civil litigation with respect to the aforementioned products, nor do they preclude the bringing of additional claims. However, as previously reported, Bayer has settled the actions which management believes to be material. In addition, a putative class action against Bayer AG and certain of its subsidiaries, as well as other companies, recently has been filed alleging claims of anticompetitive activities involving two additional rubber products, polybutadiene rubber (br) and styrene butadi-ene rubber (sbr). Respective litigation in Europe is likely.
Proceedings involving polyester polyols, urethanes and urethane chemicals
In Canada an investigation is pending against Bayer for alleged anticompetitive conduct relating to adipic-based polyester polyols. In the United States, Bayer Corporation paid a fine on the basis of an agreement reached with the u.s. Department of Justice in 2004.
A number of civil claims for damages including class actions have been filed in the United States against Bayer involving allegations of unlawful collusion on prices for certain polyester polyol, urethanes and urethane chemicals product lines. Similar actions are pending in Canada with respect to polyester polyols.
Bayer has reached agreements or agreements in principle to settle certain of the u.s. actions. These agreements or agreements in principle partly remain subject to court approval. These settlements do not resolve all of the pending civil litigations with respect to the aforementioned products, nor do they preclude the bringing of additional claims.
Proceedings involving polyether polyols and other precursors for urethane end-use products
Bayer has been named as a defendant in multiple putative class action lawsuits in the United States and Canada involving allegations of price fixing for, inter alia, polyether polyols and certain other precursors for urethane end-use products. In the United States Bayer has settled with a class of direct purchasers of polyether polyols, mdi and tdi (and related systems) representing approximately 75 percent of the direct purchasers, which settlement has been approved by the court. The remaining direct purchasers opted out of this settlement and have the right to bring their own actions. To date no such actions have been brought. In Canada, the class action lawsuit on behalf of direct and indirect purchasers of polyether polyols, mdi and tdi (and related systems) continues. In February 2006 Bayer was served with a subpoena from the u.s. Department of Justice seeking information relating to the manufacture and sale of this product.
Impact of these antitrust proceedings on Bayer
Excluding the portion allocated to lanxess, the provisions with respect to the described civil proceedings were reduced from 285 million in 2005 to 129 million as of December 31, 2006, due to settlement payments.
Bayer will continue to pursue settlements that in its view are warranted. In cases where settlement is not achievable, Bayer will continue to defend itself vigorously.
The financial risk associated with the proceedings described above, beyond the amounts already paid and the financial provisions already established, is currently not quantifiable due to the considerable uncertainty associated with these proceedings. Consequently, no provisions other than those described above have been established. The company expects that, in the course of the regulatory proceedings and civil damages suits, additional charges, which are currently not quantifiable, will become necessary.

 


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Risk Report
Proceedings involving genetically modified rice
Since August 2006, Bayer CropScience lp is party to multiple lawsuits, including putative class actions, filed in u.s. federal and state courts by rice farmers and resellers. Plaintiffs allege that they have suffered economic losses after traces of the genetically modified rice event llrice 601 were identified in samples of conventional long-grain rice grown in the u.s. This is alleged to have led to various commercial damages, including a decline in the commodity price for long-grain rice, costs associated with restrictions on imports and exports, and costs to secure alternative supplies. All the actions pending in federal court were consolidated in December in federal district court in Missouri in a multidistrict litigation (mdl) proceeding.
After technological development, llrice 601 had been further tested in cooperation with third parties, including a breeding research institute in the u.s. However, it was never selected for commercialization. The u.s. Department of Agriculture and the u.s. Food and Drug Administration have stated that llrice 601 does not pose a health risk and is safe for use in food and feed and for the environment. In November 2006, the usda advised that it had deregulated llrice 601. The usda is conducting an investigation in an effort to determine how llrice 601 became present in commercial rice grown in the United States.
Bayer believes it has meritorious defenses and intends to continue to defend itself vigorously. Due to the considerable uncertainty associated with these proceedings, it is currently not possible to estimate potential liability.
Proceedings involving oral contraceptives
Yasmin®: In April 2005, Bayer Schering Pharma filed an anda iv suit against Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Barr Laboratories Inc. in u.s. federal court alleging patent infringement by Barr for the intended generic version of Bayer Schering Pharma’s Yasmin® oral contraceptive product in the United States. In June 2005 Barr filed its counterclaim seeking to invalidate Bayer Schering Pharma’s patent. This lawsuit is currently in the discovery phase.
yaz®: In January 2007, Bayer Schering Pharma received notice from Barr Laboratories, Inc. that it has filed an anda iv application with the u.s. fda seeking approval of a generic version of Bayer Schering Pharma’s yaz® oral contraceptive product. Barr will be prohibited from marketing its generic version until after expiry in March 2009 of the exclusivity period for marketing granted by fda.
Bayer highly values its Yasmin® and yaz® oral contraceptive products and is deeply committed to continuing its leadership position in oral contraception.
Proceedings involving propylene oxide
In May 2006 a u.s. arbitration panel issued a final award in favor of Lyondell Chemical Co. in respect of a dispute with Bayer over interpretation of their Joint Venture Agreement for the manufacture of propylene oxide. Bayer is seeking to vacate the final award, while Lyondell is seeking to confirm the award as well as obtain pre-award interest. Bayer has established appropriate provisions in this regard.
In addition to seeking to vacate the final award, in January 2007 Bayer filed suit against Lyondell in a u.s. court of justice seeking equitable reformation of an agreement and restitution of certain monies paid or, as a result of the final award, allegedly owing by Bayer to Lyondell in connection with the panel award.

 


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Bayer has separately notified Lyondell of its claim in connection with Lyondell’s affiliate to compensate Bayer for using certain quantities of propylene oxide from Bayer’s share of capacity under the Joint Venture. This dispute is proceeding to binding arbitration.
Proceedings involving syringe injectors and related products
In November 1998, Liebel-Flarsheim Company and its parent, Mallinckrodt, Inc., filed suit against Bayer Schering Pharma AG’s Medrad subsidiary alleging that some of Medrad’s front load syringe injections infringe four patents held by Liebel-Flarsheim. In October 2005, the court ruled in favor of Medrad. The ruling stated that the Medrad products would have infringed the patents of Liebel-Flarsheim if those patents were valid, but then held all four of those patents to be invalid. Each party is appealing the material portions of the ruling unfavorable to it. In September 2004 Liebel-Flarsheim Company and its parent, Mallinckrodt, Inc., filed a second suit alleging that a further product of Medrad infringes the same group of four patents. Based on the October 2005 decision in the first case the court also dismissed this case in October 2005, but again each party appealed the material portions of the ruling unfavorable to it.
The plaintiffs in these cases have also filed two additional declaratory judgment actions against Medrad. Medrad separately has brought suit against Liebel-Flarsheim alleging that a Liebel-Flarsheim mr syringe injector infringes a patent held by Medrad.
Bayer believes it has meritorious arguments in all proceedings and intends to defend itself vigorously against any claim raised.
Patent and contractual disputes:
In the u.s. Abbott has commenced a lawsuit against Bayer and another party alleging infringement of two of Abbott’s patents relating to blood glucose monitoring devices. This also relates to Ascensia® Contour® Systems which are supplied by a Japanese manufacturer. The manufacturer is contractually obligated to indemnify Bayer against the potential liability with respect to this claim, as well as defense costs, and management expects Bayer to be reimbursed for a substantial portion of all such costs and liability, if any.
Limagrain Genetics Corporation has filed suit against Bayer – as legal successor to Rhône-Poulenc – for indemnity against liabilities to third parties arising from breach of contract.
In another dispute, Bayer has filed suit against several companies in the u.s. alleging patent infringement in connection with moxifloxacin. These companies are defending the action, claiming, among other things, that the patents are invalid and not enforceable.
Bayer believes it has meritorious defenses in these patent and contractual disputes and will defend itself vigorously.
Product liability and other litigation:
Legal risks also arise from product liability lawsuits other than those concerning Lipobay/ Baycol. Numerous actions are pending against Bayer seeking damages for plaintiffs resident outside of the United States who claim to have been become infected with hiv or hcy (hepatitis c virus) through blood plasma products. Further actions have been filed by u.s. residents who claim to have become infected with hcv.

 


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Risk Report
Bayer, together with other manufacturers, wholesalers and users, is a defendant in Alabama, United States, in cases seeking damages, including one u.s.-wide putative class action, for personal injuries alleging health damages through exposure to diphenylmethane diisocyanate (mdi) used in coal mines.
Bayer, like a number of other pharmaceutical companies in the United States, has several lawsuits pending against it in which plaintiffs, including states, are seeking damages, punitive damages and/or disgorgement of profits, alleging manipulation in the reporting of wholesale prices and/or best prices.
The shareholder resolution on the domination and profit and loss transfer agreement between Bayer Schering Pharma AG and Bayer Schering GmbH passed at the Extraordinary Stockholder’s Meeting held on September 13, 2006 is subject to legal challenges. Dissenting stockholders are seeking to have the stockholder resolution set aside or to have it declared null and void. Several stockholders have indicated proceedings asking the court to review the adequacy of the costs compensation (Abfindung) and of the guaranteed dividend (Ausgleich). Bayer Schering GmbH has commenced special proceedings (Freigabeverfahren) to obtain a judgment that the stockholder actions do not prevent registration of the domination and profit and loss transfer agreement and that any defects of the stockholder resolution do not affect the validity of the registration. One stockholder has brought a suit in Berlin, Germany, seeking to have registration of the agreement in the Commercial Register removed (Amtslöschungsverfahren).
A further risk may arise from asbestos litigation in the United States. In the majority of these cases, the plaintiffs allege that Bayer and co-defendants employed third parties on their sites in past decades without providing them with sufficient warnings or protection against the known dangers of asbestos. One Bayer affiliate in the United States is the legal successor to companies that sold asbestos products until 1976. Should liability be established, Union Carbide has to completely indemnify Bayer.
Bayer, among others, is named as a defendant in a putative nationwide class action pending in federal court in North Carolina, United States, which alleges violations of antitrust laws in the marketing of a certain pest control product (Premise®).
Bayer believes it has meritorious defenses in these product liability and other proceedings and will defend itself vigorously.
Liability considerations following the lanxess spin-off
The liability situation following the spin-off of the lanxess subgroup is governed by both statutory and contractual provisions. Under the German Transformation Act, all entities that are parties to a spin-off are jointly and severally liable for obligations of the transferor entity that are established prior to the spin-off date. Bayer AG and lanxess AG are thus jointly and severally liable for a time period of 5 years for all obligations of Bayer AG that existed on January 28, 2005.
Assessment of the overall risk situation
Compared to the previous year, the overall risk situation did not change significantly in the reporting period. The overall risk assessment is based on a consolidated view of all significant individual risks. At present, no indications of potential individual or aggregated risks have been identified that individually or in combination could endanger the continued existence of the company.

 


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Subsequent Events
The divestment of Bayer’s diagnostics business to Siemens for 4.3 billion, which was agreed in June 2006, was completed in January 2007. This amount exceeds the purchase price of 4.2 billion announced in July 2006, mainly because of the transfer of higher working capital. After taxes the divestiture proceeds amounted to about 3.6 billion, which was used to reduce our financial debt.
The Extraordinary Stockholders’ Meeting of Bayer Schering Pharma AG resolved on January 17, 2007, to effect a squeeze-out of the remaining minority stockholders. 99.62 percent of the votes cast were in favor of the resolution. The decision means the shares still held by minority stockholders will be transferred to the main stockholder, Bayer Schering GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bayer AG, in return for cash compensation of 98.98 per share. Unaffiliated dissenting shareholders have brought court actions to have the shareholder resolution set aside or to have it declared null and void.
We sold H.C. Starck to Advent International and The Carlyle Group. With the closing on February 1, 2007, the two financial investors take control of the Goslar, Germany-based producer of metal and ceramic powders, specialty chemicals and components made from engineering ceramics and refractory metals. The antitrust authorities in the United States and the European Union approved the agreed divestiture on November 23, 2006. The transaction volume amounts to roughly 1.2 billion.

 


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Future Perspectives
Economic outlook and market opportunities in 2007
For 2007 we expect the global economy to grow at a rate that is considerably faster than the long-term average, although the pace of growth will most likely slow down somewhat at a high level. In our opinion, however, the economic slowdown in the United States will only have a moderate effect on the global economy, as robust growth in other regions such as Europe and the emerging economies of Asia and Latin America is expected to compensate for the weakness in the United States. Although we anticipate that the global economy will maintain its current momentum, risks could result from continuing imbalances in the world economy. It is also very difficult to predict the development of oil prices.
The economic indicators in the United States point to a decline in the pace of growth. We expect the economy there to expand only at a rate comparable to that of the European Union, as growth is likely to be increasingly checked by a more restrictive monetary policy. We anticipate that the u.s. economy will regain momentum in the second half of the year following a temporary period of weakness at the beginning of 2007. Nonetheless, we do see a risk that a progressing cooldown in real estate price trends could have a stronger impact on domestic demand than expected.
In our opinion, the economic upswing in Europe will continue. The business climate indicators point to ongoing robust growth in the euro zone, due particularly to the fact that the economy is now being buoyed more strongly by domestic demand. Private consumption will most likely continue to grow briskly if the labor market situation improves further. Investment activity should remain strong thanks to stable corporate earnings and improvements in efficiency. We expect that the robust economic growth worldwide will continue to sustain European exports. Despite these positive signals, however, we are not overlooking the latent risk that the upswing in the euro zone could lose momentum due to a more restrictive fiscal policy in some countries and growing appreciation in the value of the euro. Furthermore, the stimulating effect of monetary policy is likely to gradually abate. Last but not least, an unexpectedly strong downswing in the u.s. economy could pose an increasing risk to growth in Europe.
We expect growth in Japan to be slightly lower compared to the previous year due to a less expansive fiscal and monetary policy. Export growth is expected to weaken somewhat in view of the anticipated economic downswing in Asia and the United States. Provided capacity utilization remains high, capital spending should remain the driving force for economic expansion, with the result that domestic demand will most likely gain in significance. Consumer demand should increase palpably as a result of rising real wage levels. On balance, economic growth is expected to fall just short of the pace seen in the past two years.
Many of the emerging economies in Asia are expected to be impacted to some extent by the slowdown in u.s. imports. In view of the considerable pace of growth in these countries in recent years, however, it is not believed that the temporary slowdown in exports will have a major effect on economic expansion. We continue to regard the growth outlook as very positive, especially considering that the economy will most likely be buoyed

 


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by a sustained expansion of domestic demand. The Chinese economy, on the other hand, will probably grow at a pace similar to that of the previous year. We anticipate that robust consumer demand and strong gains in investment activity will more or less offset the expected decline in foreign demand. However, surplus capacities in some economic sectors could pose risks to the Chinese economy.
We expect economic development in Latin America to remain positive, although the pace of expansion could decline slightly should raw material prices fall and export demand from the United States decrease. Once again, there appear to be varying development trends in this region. Whereas the Brazilian economy is expected to recover slightly, the upswing in Mexico is believed to have peaked in 2006. However, there is concern about political events in some countries – particularly Venezuela and Bolivia – which could jeopardize the region’s development over the long term.
For 2007 we do not expect a major change in the performance of the pharmaceuticals market compared to the prior year. In North America and Europe, specialties such as cancer drugs will spur further growth. However, this will probably not be sufficient to ensure a sustained improvement in the pace of growth in Europe due to planned governmental cost-containment measures. By contrast, continued double-digit sales growth is anticipated in emerging markets such as South Korea, Brazil, Turkey and Russia.
The global crop protection market is expected to expand slightly in 2007. We are optimistic about the trend in this market because demand for plant-based raw materials such as corn, canola, soybeans and cereals has increased sharply due to the drought-related poor harvest yields in 2006 and to strongly growing raw material requirements for bio-diesel and bioethanol production. As a result, the agriculture industry is expected to need larger amounts of fertilizers and crop protection products. In the future we anticipate growing demand for plants that can be used to produce energy.
We again expect a positive trend across the MaterialScience market sectors in 2007, although the extent of this trend will vary from region to region.
In the automotive sector, we are optimistic about a recovery in the United States in 2007, while the downswing in western Europe and Japan will continue. As a considerable production increase is expected in the other major countries and regions, however, this industry sector will most likely perform robustly once again, albeit below the long-term trend.
In the construction industry, a downswing appears to be materializing for 2007 in the United States. We anticipate a further decline in residential construction over the course of the year, while non-residential construction should continue to increase. In our estimation, the remaining regions of the world will post moderate to very positive growth rates as in the previous year.
A slight downswing is anticipated for the electrical and electronics sector in 2007, triggered by stagnation in the United States. In connection with a continuing positive situation in the other regions, satisfactory growth at a rate of double the expansion in the gross domestic product is expected.

 


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Future Perspective
Business strategy
The Bayer Group is focusing on the fast-growing, innovation-driven health care, nutrition and high-tech materials businesses in line with its mission statement: “Bayer: Science For A Better Life.” By strategically aligning ourselves to these attractive markets and concentrating on our core competencies, we are able to invest more intensively in growth areas and innovative technologies. We aim to achieve leadership roles and expand our already strong market positions. We will also press ahead with cost-containment and efficiency-improvement efforts in order to further increase the company’s value over the long term. For a detailed description of our financial strategy, please consult the Liquidity and Capital Resources section on page 49 ff.
Bayer HealthCare
Bayer HealthCare’s goal is to match or exceed market growth in all divisions. Our biggest HealthCare segment, Pharmaceuticals, comprises both Specialty Care and Primary Care activities. We aim to position our Pharmaceuticals segment as a strong supplier of products for medical specialists, while at the same time taking advantage of opportunities in the primary care business. We also want to focus more closely on indications in which there is major potential for improving diagnosis and therapy.
The takeover of Schering AG, Berlin, Germany, in 2006 and the establishment of Bayer Schering Pharma AG were key steps in this direction. Our promising Specialty Care portfolio including Kogenate® for hemophilia treatment and Nexavar® for therapy of renal cell carcinoma was considerably expanded and strengthened by the addition of leading products in the fields of gynecology (Yasmin®), diagnostic imaging (Magnevist®) and the treatment of multiple sclerosis (Betaferon®).
Our Primary Care business offers products for general practitioners. We are well represented in the primary care market with our established brands Avalox®/Avelox®, Levitra®, Adalat®, Glucobay® and Ciprobay®/Cipro®. In the United States, our products are marketed through the existing alliance with Schering-Plough. (Please note that Schering-Plough Corporation, New Jersey, and the company acquired by Bayer in June 2006, i. e. Bayer Schering Pharma AG (formerly named Schering AG), Berlin, Germany, are unaffiliated companies that have been totally independent of each other for many years.) The purchase from GlaxoSmithKline of marketing rights for the blood pressure medications Pritor® and PritorPlus® in certain European countries further strengthens our Primary Care business.
Research and development is an important growth driver for our Pharmaceuticals business, which is why this segment accounts for the biggest proportion of r&d spending within the HealthCare subgroup. Life cycle management, inlicensing and cooperation agreements remain important elements of our strategy, as such business development activities supplement our own research efforts and are designed to strengthen our portfolio.
Our Consumer Health segment is comprised of the Consumer Care, Diabetes Care and Animal Health divisions.
The goal of our Consumer Care Division is to expand our leading position in the global over-the-counter (otc) medicines market. Our strategy is primarily aimed at fully exhausting the growth potential of our proven brands such as Alka-Seltzer®, Aspirin®, Aleve®, Rennie®, One-A-Day®, Canesten® and Bepanthen®. We are pursuing a clear course of

 


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expansion in fast-growing regions such as eastern Europe and Asia/Pacific, and we aim to further develop our business in new growth segments. We also intend to exploit external growth opportunities through acquisitions and inlicensing. One example of this is the planned acquisition of the otc cough and cold portfolio of the Chinese TopSun group, a transaction we expect to be closed in 2007.
Our Diabetes Care Division aims to enhance its competitive position in the area of blood glucose measurement and diabetes management. To this end, we are expanding our product range by developing new measurement systems and test strips to facilitate even more user-friendly blood sugar monitoring for diabetics. We also aim to expand our portfolio by investing in additional areas of business. We intend to enhance our competitiveness by continuously improving our products, as well as through cost-containment measures and the more efficient use of our resources. Our strategy also includes supplementing our own strengths through strategic partnerships in specific fields of expertise.
In the Animal Health Division we aim to achieve global leadership positions in the livestock and companion animals markets and become a preferred supplier and partner. Our strategy is directed at achieving organic growth by focusing on attractive countries and markets, as well as through the successful life cycle management of existing core brands. Animal Health regularly evaluates options for acquisitions or strategic alliances to supplement our existing product range.
Bayer CropScience
Our CropScience subgroup is active in a very dynamic and challenging market environment. As a research-based company, we see good long-term perspectives for the agriculture sector. Over the next ten years, we expect further market stimulation driven particularly by the introduction of modern, innovative crop protection products and the growing trend toward the use of commercial seed products. We believe that both the seed and crop protection markets can benefit from stronger demand for agricultural products for use in biofuels.
As a leading innovation-driven supplier of products and integrated solutions, CropScience aims to contribute to the production of high-quality food, feed and natural fiber products with its Crop Protection, Environmental Science and BioScience business groups. We seek to develop mutually beneficial, long-lasting and dependable partnerships with our customers and all other interest groups. We manage our business responsibly in keeping with our commitment to sustainable development and in order to achieve profitable long-term growth.
Innovation is the foundation for the further development of our enterprise. The introduction of new active substances replaces older crop protection products and thus gives us the opportunity to place innovative products with an improved performance spectrum and higher
value-added on the market. This is an important condition for achieving our profitability goals. Our strict cost management makes a further significant contribution. Through our new cost structure initiative – which should be largely implemented by 2009 – and our ongoing performance enhancement programs, we aim to make Bayer Crop-Science even more efficient in all areas.

 


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Future Perspective
In the Crop Protection segment, Bayer CropScience aims to defend its leading market position through a broad regional presence and a balanced portfolio of innovative and highly effective insecticides, fungicides, herbicides and seed treatment products.
We endeavor to achieve this strategic goal by steadily improving our product mix. This includes the continuous market launch of new products from our research and development pipeline, successful life cycle management and the initiation of research in new growth fields.
The Environmental Science, BioScience segment completes the offering of Bayer Crop-Science with products and solutions tailored to specific market needs. Environmental Science makes use of the development and production capacities and the new active substance innovations of Crop Protection. In terms of sales, Environmental Science is one of the world’s leading suppliers of non-agricultural products based on crop protection active ingredients. Our strategy is to further expand this position by developing and marketing high-quality products for private and professional users and by offering tailor-made, customer-oriented innovations. BioScience benefits from the customer base and biological expertise of Crop Protection, bringing to market new seeds and products based on plant biotechnology and modern breeding methods. Through the combination of seed, plant traits and crop protection products, we strive to offer farmers integrated solutions.
BioScience is internationally active in research, development and marketing. Its activities cover three main areas. In the agricultural seed business we focus on our three core crops of cotton, canola and rice. We help to improve the performance and quality of these crops using modern plant breeding and innovative plant biotechnology-based solutions. Our New Business Ventures unit develops novel uses for plants as the basis for producing materials for industrial and consumer applications. In the vegetable seed business, our subsidiary Nunhems is a leading developer and supplier of high-quality seeds. We are pursuing additional growth opportunities in all three areas of BioScience.
Bayer MaterialScience
The Bayer MaterialScience subgroup aims to further expand its global market position. Here we are relying in particular on our technological know-how, new applications for our products in the Materials and Systems segments and the targeted expansion of our presence in the growth markets of Asia.
We intend to further strengthen the world market position of our Materials segment by exploiting the growth potential of our portfolio. Recently completed new capital expenditure projects in Asia underscore our determination to expand our business activities in what is the world’s fastest growing region. We continue to seek opportunities to strengthen our position in the Materials segment, and we intend to enhance this segment’s performance by continuously improving our cost structures and by increasing the efficiency of our research and development operations.

 


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The commissioning of the first phase of our world-scale production facility in Asia will help improve the cost efficiency of our Polycarbonates business unit (pcs) and facilitate the use of leading-edge technologies in this growth region. We aim to further expand our capacities in order to meet the growing demand for polycarbonates. Furthermore, we intend to make available sufficient resources for product and applications development in growth areas. In addition to our current expansion course in China, we aim to constantly evaluate business potential in other regions with a view to expanding our market coverage. We plan to strengthen our compounding business through geographic expansion. In the case of semi-finished products such as polycarbonate sheet and film, we are aiming to achieve a higher earnings margin and are therefore placing products with good growth perspectives at the center of our strategy.
Thermoplastic Polyurethanes (tpu) will continue to focus on high-margin, fast-growing products in the future. Through this new alignment, tpu aims to achieve and maintain a higher level of profitability. With the acquisition of the Taiwan-based Ure-Tech Group, which is scheduled for closing in the second quarter of 2007, tpu hopes to capture additional market share in Asia.
We intend to further strengthen the world market position of our Systems segment by exploiting the growth potential of our portfolio. Recently completed new capital expenditure projects in Asia underscore our determination to expand our business activities in what is the world’s fastest growing region. We continue to seek opportunities to strengthen our market position in the Systems segment, and we intend to enhance this segment’s performance by continuously improving our cost structures and by increasing the efficiency of our research and development operations.
The commissioning of the first phase of our world-scale production facility in Asia will help improve the cost efficiency of our Polyurethanes business unit (pur) and facilitate the use of leading-edge technologies in this growth region. We are focusing primarily on quality, as well as on product and process innovation, in order to capture further market share in the fast-growing Asian markets. We intend to cover increasing demand for mdi products through a further expansion of our capacities. In some segments, portfolio management activities are planned to achieve a shift toward higher value products and thus improved profitability.
The Coatings, Adhesives, Sealants business unit is seeking to defend its market position for Basic and Modified Isocyanates (bmi). We intend to meet increasing demand in the growth regions through the expansion of our production capacities. By concentrating more closely on
high-margin products, optimizing our portfolio and increasing the use of modern technologies, we aim to achieve higher profitability in our resins activities.

 


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Bayer Annual Report 2006
      Management Report   95
Future Perspective
Inorganic Basic Chemicals utilizes state-of-the-art technologies to produce raw materials such as chlorine and sodium hydroxide for the Polyurethanes, Coatings, Adhesives, Sealants, and Polycarbonates business units, as well as for external customers. In order to achieve the highest possible level of cost efficiency and safeguard continuous supply, we are pursuing various strategic options for the in-house production or external procurement of such raw materials, depending on the specific circumstances at our production sites.
The New Business section identifies and evaluates market and technology trends for all MaterialScience business units and converts business ideas into specific projects for the development of new products and applications outside of the company’s existing core business.
Bayer Group sales and earnings forecast
We further improved the Bayer Group’s earning power in 2006. With record highs for underlying ebit and ebitda, an underlying ebitda margin of 19.3 percent (calculated on Group sales) and currency- and portfolio-adjusted sales growth of 5.2 percent, we achieved our operational targets for 2006. We are confident that by building on this foundation we can continue to enhance our operating performance.
In 2007, we aim to boost Group sales by more than 10 percent. Adjusted for portfolio and currency effects, business should expand by about 5 percent. We plan to increase underlying ebitda by more than 10 percent as well, and also slightly improve our underlying ebitda margin.
We expect to incur special charges in the region of 650 million to 700 million for the integration of Schering AG, and between 150 million and 200 million for the restructuring project initiated at CropScience in summer 2006. Special charges for the Group as a whole are likely to come in at between 900 million and 950 million, including some 200 million in write-downs.
To safeguard growth, we are planning capital expenditures of 1.7 billion, including 1.6 billion for property, plant and equipment. We anticipate that depreciation and amortization will total roughly 2.5 billion, with depreciation of property, plant and equipment accounting for 1.2 billion. We plan to spend 2.8 billion on research and development.
By 2009 we aim to achieve an underlying ebitda Margin of approximately 22 percent, provided the market environment for our businesses remains positive and there is no major deviation from our central planning assumptions, such as budgeted exchange rates. This would move Bayer’s profitability into a new order of magnitude.

 


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96 Management Report
      Bayer Annual Report 2006
Subgroups’ sales and earnings forecasts
Bayer HealthCare
In 2007 we intend to grow with or faster than the market in all divisions and improve the underlying ebitda margin toward 24 percent. We are also very confident about the performance of our HealthCare business beyond 2007. We believe we can steadily improve the underlying ebitda margin and have set a target of about 27 percent for 2009. Contributing to this will be business expansion along with the synergies from the Schering AG integration.
Bayer CropScience
We currently predict a broadly favorable market environment for our CropScience business in 2007, although it remains to be seen how market conditions will develop in the various regions.
We aim to strengthen our role as a leading innovator in chemical crop protection and thus to grow slightly faster than the market. We aim to further improve our underlying ebitda margin from 21.1 percent in 2006 toward 22 percent, mainly with the help of cost-saving measures and with increased contributions from our new products.
We plan to further improve the underlying ebitda margin through 2009 and believe we can achieve in the region of 25 percent in a normal market environment.
Bayer MaterialScience
MaterialScience plans further volume increases in 2007. We predict a strong start to the new year, with a first-quarter underlying ebitda margin significantly above the fourth quarter of 2006. For 2007 we expect to sustain a good, value-creating earnings level. Reliable longer-term forecasts currently are not possible due to the high volatility of raw material prices.
With its enhanced business portfolio and competitive production structures, we believe MaterialScience can create value even in a difficult market environment by earning an attractive premium over its capital and asset reproduction costs. Under favorable economic conditions, we plan to generate an underlying ebitda margin in excess of 18 percent.

 


Table of Contents

         
Bayer Annual Report 2006
        Consolidated Financial Statements 97
Consolidated Financial Statements
             
 
Consolidated Financial Statements        
 
 
Management’s Statement of Responsibility for Financial Reporting     98  
 
Auditor’s Report     99  
 
Bayer Group Consolidated Statements of Income     100  
 
Bayer Group Consolidated Balance Sheets     101  
 
Bayer Group Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows     102  
 
Bayer Group Consolidated Statements of Recognized Income and Expense     103  
 
 
Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements of the Bayer Group        
 
 
1.
  Key data by segment and region     104  
 
2.
  General information     106  
 
3.
  Effects of new accounting pronouncements     107  
 
4.
  Basic principles of the consolidated financial statements     109  
 
4.1
  Scope of consolidation and consolidation methods     109  
 
4.2
  Foreign currency translation     110  
 
4.3
  Basic recognition and valuation principles     110  
 
4.4
  Cash flow statement     117  
 
4.5
  Procedure used in global impairment testing and its impact     118  
 
5.
  Critical accounting policies     119  
 
6.
  Segment reporting     129  
 
7.
  Changes in the Bayer Group     131  
 
7.1
  Scope of consolidation     131  
 
7.2
  Business combinations and other acquisitions, divestments and discontinued operations     134  
 
 
 
  Notes to the Statements of Income        
 
8.
  Net sales     142  
 
9.
  Selling expenses     142  
 
10.
  Other operating income     143  
 
11.
  Other operating expenses     143  
 
12.
  Personnel expenses / employees     144  
 
13.
  Non-operating result     144  
 
13.1
  Income (loss) from investments in affiliated companies – net     145  
 
13.2
  Interest expense – net     145  
 
13.3
  Other non-operating expense – net     145  
 
14.
  Income taxes     146  
 
15.
  Income attributable to minority interest     148  
 
16.
  Earnings per share from continuing and discontinued operations     149  
 
 
 
  Notes to the Balance Sheets        
 
17.
  Goodwill and other intangible assets     150  
 
18.
  Property, plant and equipment     153