It's true that the results give little cause for celebration. Even after adjusting for so-called exceptional costs - which at Bayer are in fact almost systematically recurring - adjusted operating profit was down 10.5% on the same time last year.

Once again in the first nine months of the year, all three segments - pharmaceuticals, consumer health care and agricultural sciences - posted significant sales declines. As long as the fire had been smoldering, one might have hoped for more radical and, above all, more effective measures.

Admittedly, the headline loss of EUR4.5 billion is merely an "accounting" one, since it is mainly the result of a further EUR3.7 billion in asset write-downs, and cash flows are - albeit timidly - in positive territory. However, more will be needed to reassure shareholders in the face of EUR36 billion in net debt, the refinancing of which seems increasingly compromised.

Earlier this year, we warned that the Group and its new CEO Bill Anderson were far from out of the woods. Indeed, to return to comfortable solvency - and to consider resuming dividend payments - Bayer absolutely must release a series of blockbusters from its pharmaceuticals division.

These are long overdue, which explains why Anderson is so vigorously resisting pressure from shareholders, who would like to dismantle the conglomerate. Like Bayer's unions, the Texan knows that he needs the resources of his agriculture and consumer health divisions to finance the very expensive R&D of his pharmaceuticals division.

In the event of an asset sale - in reality, only the consumer health division is monetizable, as Monsanto is not yet out of the woods - shareholders would no doubt insist on paying off the debt first. Such a move would avert the worst-case scenario, but would not do the pharmaceutical division any favors, as it is more than ever in need of reinvention, and therefore greedy for resources.

The takeover of Monsanto will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the greatest strategic errors of modern capitalism. Its sad fate, however, was not predetermined. On the contrary, observers at the time were delighted that Bayer, one of the first German conglomerates to recognize the need for in-depth restructuring, had decided to get rid of its cyclical and unprofitable chemical subsidiary in order to break into the field of agricultural sciences.

Six years later, Covestro has done rather well - see Covestro AG: An arbitrage opportunity? - while the marriage between its former parent company and Monsanto turned into a never-ending nightmare.