BAYER AG 
"Last week, Syngenta announced internally that the company intends to reduce its headcount at its headquarters in Basel due to an intensified and persistently difficult economic environment," a spokesperson for the company, which is part of the Chinese Sinochem group, said on Wednesday in response to an inquiry. "This program aims to reduce the workforce in Basel by around 150 jobs in 2024." Basel will remain the Group's global headquarters. The Tages-Anzeiger newspaper had previously reported on the job cuts. There are also programs to strengthen competitiveness in other markets, the spokesperson explained. There is no global plan. Syngenta has 60,000 employees worldwide.
Falling raw material prices and unfavorable weather conditions reduced Syngenta's sales and profits in the first half of the year. The ongoing industry-wide destocking of crop protection products is also weighing on the rival of Bayer, BASF and the American company Corteva. In view of the difficult market conditions, Syngenta has taken measures to increase productivity, such as reducing capital expenditure. In March, the Group canceled an IPO in Shanghai that had been pursued for years. Syngenta was acquired by ChemChina for 43 billion dollars in 2017 and integrated into Sinochem in 2021.
(Report by Paul Arnold and John Revill, edited by Myria Mildenberger. If you have any queries, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)
