Bayer homes in on €10B plastics IPO with plans for summer roadshow

Bayer is gearing up to spin off its plastics unit and become a life-sciences-focused company, and as part of that prep, it's going on an investor roadshow to seek feedback on its plans.

Bayer CEO Marijn Dekkers

The company is planning to hold investor meetings this summer, sources told Reuters, getting their take on timing for its IPO. The offering could value the new company, to be dubbed Covestro, at €10 billion--and it might hit the public markets in October, with Bayer turning the unit into a legally separate and self-contained entity by Sept. 1.

Bayer has also brought more banks into the fold to join IPO adviser Rothschild and global coordinators Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank, the news service notes. Bank of America, JP Morgan, Citi and UBS are coming on as bookrunners, while BNP, Unicredit and Kepler will fill the co-lead roles.

When all is said and done, the German company is expecting to have more time and resources to devote to its core businesses, HealthCare and CropScience. Both have been performing well as of late, with pharma in particular posting red-hot sales to buoy the HealthCare side.

But that's not to say the Leverkeusen-based drugmaker doesn't have units that could use a jolt. Its consumer health division, for one, has seen sluggish sales since folding in Merck's ($MRK) OTC unit, an asset Bayer snapped up for $14.2 billion last year.

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