Not only environmentalists, but also some investors are now critical of the takeover.
(Photo: Reuters)
Frankfurt Due to the controversial takeover of the US seed manufacturer Monsanto, Bayer may be confronted with a multi-billion dollar investor test case. Tilp Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft, which specializes in such cases, claims to represent more than 250 institutional investors and a large number of private investors on Wednesday. These would be deceived by Bayer about the economic risks of the $ 63 billion acquisition and are demanding compensation.
The total volume of these lawsuits is more than one billion euros, said the law firm. It initiated the capital investor model procedure (KapMuG), in which individual lawsuits on the same question are to be bundled and clarified in a court case as an example.
In Tilp’s view, Bayer has misled its shareholders primarily about the risks of pending consumer lawsuits in the United States in connection with the glyphosate-containing weed killer Roundup, which the company took into account with the Monsanto takeover in 2016. As a result, the share price fell massively.
Bayer considers the lawsuits to be unfounded. “Bayer has complied with the law and complied with its publication obligations,” announced the company. Investigations by independent experts have shown that the Bayer Board of Management acted in accordance with the requirements of the takeover. “We will defend ourselves legally accordingly.”
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In the United States, Bayer has to defend itself against thousands of lawsuits from Roundup users because of the drug’s alleged carcinogenic effect. Bayer has always rejected that.
The Cologne Regional Court has now decided that the law firm’s application to initiate a sample investor procedure in this matter will be published in the Federal Gazette, Tilp announced. This is a first step in the process. If there are enough similar applications, the Higher Regional Court will set a model plaintiff with whom the process will then be conducted as an example. The Regional Court of Cologne confirmed that the 22nd civil chamber had decided that the application for the model procedure should be made public in the Federal Gazette (Az. 251/20).
Telecom process as a model
The option of investor model proceedings based on the model of class actions in the USA has only existed in Germany since 2005. The process was created to cope with the flood of investor lawsuits following the so-called third IPO of Deutsche Telekom. The mammoth lawsuit against the Bonn group is now to be brought to an end after almost two decades with a settlement offer for the plaintiffs.
The KapMuG is intended to give plaintiffs the opportunity to have certain legal issues related to capital market law clarified in front of a court. In such a case, the Braunschweig Higher Regional Court has been dealing with investor lawsuits worth billions for three years because of price losses incurred in connection with the VW diesel scandal. The Sparkasse’s investment company Deka Investment is the model applicant here.
In the legal dispute over compensation for Daimler shareholders in connection with the diesel affair, the Higher Regional Court Stuttgart recently appointed a private investor as the model plaintiff
More: Glyphosate processes: Bayer sees “encouraging signal” from the US Supreme Court