Bayer Delays Plans for Listing on NYSE

Bayer, Germany’s biggest drug maker, said Thursday that it will delay plans for a New York Stock Exchange listing after losing more than a quarter of its market value in two weeks because the company withdrew one of its best-selling medicines.

“The climate for our stock market listing has altered considerably over the past few days,” Bayer Chief Executive Manfred Schneider said. “We need more time.”

The listing, planned for next month, won’t be rescheduled any sooner than February, he said.

Bayer planned to use the U.S. listing to attract investors in the world’s biggest market and gain shares to make U.S. acquisitions easier.

But after cutting profit targets twice in six weeks, Bayer shouldn’t be trying to expand its business, some investors said.

“They should focus on internal problems, and they have a lot going on,” said Lorenzo Carcano, a fund manager at Metzler Investment, a major owner of Bayer shares.

Shares of the company, which discovered aspirin more than 100 years ago, tumbled in European trading to a two-year low Thursday.

Bayer last week pulled the cholesterol-lowering treatment Baycol, its third-best-selling medicine. The drug has been linked to 52 deaths, including at least 31 in the U.S.

Schneider, who has eight months left as CEO, faces lawsuits filed by patients who took Baycol.

The company said the legal action is unfounded because it had warned against mixing Baycol with another medicine, known as gemfibrozil, which U.S. regulators cited as a factor in 12 of the 31 U.S. deaths.