LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Activist investor Jeff Ubben is calling on agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals group Bayer to look outside the company for a new chief executive. His hedge fund Inclusive Capital, which recently took a stake in Bayer, "would prefer an external candidate," Ubben told the Financial Times (Tuesday). That would be a clear cut, after the new boss was found internally in the past. Officially, the departure of Bayer CEO Werner Baumann, who has often been criticized for the costly Monsanto takeover, is planned for 2024.

The search for a successor is currently underway. Supervisory Board Chairman Norbert Winkeljohann is searching internally and externally for managers and intends to present a candidate by the next Annual Stockholders' Meeting in April 2023, the Bloomberg news agency reported in September, citing people familiar with the matter. It was also not clear whether Baumann would be replaced before the end of his contract in April 2024.

Inclusive Capital had said at the start of the week that it held just under 8.2 million Bayer shares, equivalent to a stake of around 0.8 percent. Bayer shares had subsequently risen on Monday, exiting trading with a gain of 2.6 percent. Ubben's stake is thus worth a good 420 million euros.

Bayer is an interesting target for activist investors who want to directly influence the fortunes of a company. The share price, for example, continues to be severely affected by the glyphosate litigation in the United States, although things are now looking much better here.

In addition, some industry experts repeatedly criticize the conglomerate structure of the Group. The Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek, which is one of the largest shareholders with a stake of more than three percent, is probably also exerting pressure. Temasek's head of European operations, Uwe Krüger, told the Handelsblatt newspaper last year that the company was in "constructive dialogue" with the head of Bayer's Supervisory Board regarding the "strategic focus and general structure of the company.

However, according to earlier statements, Bayer management rejects a split and also points to overlaps in pharmaceutical and agricultural research, for example with regard to genetic engineering. This could possibly change under a new group CEO./mis/ngu/stk