Hello everybody and welcome to our financial news conference for the full year 2025 and the outlook for 2026. Many thanks for joining us today.

To begin, Bill Anderson will share his perspective on our performance and the path ahead of us. Heike Prinz will provide an update on the progress of our Dynamic Shared Ownership operating model, and Wolfgang Nickl will provide an overview of our financials in 2025 and the group outlook for 2026.

We will then hear from Rodrigo Santos, Stefan Oelrich, and Julio Triana on the performance of our divisions and the plans going forward to execute the respective strategies. We also have a chance to briefly hear from our newest board member, Judith Hartmann, who joined the company on March 1st.

Now, before starting, I would like to briefly draw your attention to the cautionary language included in our safe harbor statement. With that, over to you, Bill.

Thanks, Michael. Thank all of you for joining us today, and we're really happy to go through our 2025 results and provide an outlook for 2026.

Before doing that, I want to share a short update on company leadership. As we announced in November, Judith Hartmann has joined the company and the Board of Management as of March 1st, and she'll take over as CFO in June.

Between now and then, she'll be busy getting to know the company and its stakeholders. We wanted to give you the chance to hear from her today.

Before getting into our results, I'm going to turn it over to Judith, who's joining from one of our pharma facilities here in Germany.

Thanks, Bill. Yes, I have started my discovery tour of Bayer today here in Wuppertal, Germany.

It's an impressive site, and I've already had some great conversations here this morning with our pharma R&D team. I'm eager to learn much more about all of the businesses, of course, in the next few weeks ahead of June.

Yes, this is only my third day, but I'm very pleased to have joined team Bayer. Health and nutrition are personal passions for me, and I am very excited to contribute to a company that truly makes a difference in people's lives.

The mission, Health for all, Hunger for none, really resonates with me, and I can already see many great things happening at Bayer. Our novel operating model, Dynamic Shared Ownership, our investment in AI, both of these are very important levers to accelerate our business.

Most importantly, I have already been impressed by our passionate and talented people. I'm looking forward to continuing my onboarding over the next months as I prepare to take over as CFO from Wolfgang in June.

I will have the opportunity to meet many people: customers, stakeholders, employees, and I am sure many of you over time. Until then, I'll turn it back over to you, Bill.

Great. Thanks, Judith.

Let's start with 2025. In July, we upgraded our currency-adjusted sales and earnings guidance for the year.

Today, we're announcing that we delivered that guidance, landing comfortably within the improved corridor. Sales came in at 45.5 billion, and we posted core earnings per share of €4.91, and our free cash flow came in at €2.1 billion.

Here's a picture of our businesses: Crop Science progressed in the first year of its profitability improvement program. A rejuvenated picture of our Pharmaceuticals business emerged, with launch medicines establishing themselves as growth drivers and others advancing through our pipeline to the market.

Our Consumer Health business suffered from market softness in the United States and China, but maintained the bottom line. Across the firm, we're seeing improvements to the way we operate.

Launches are moving with great speed. Resources are moving more fluidly.

Our organization is considerably flatter and leaner, less managerial and more mission-oriented. We have roughly half as many layers and have reduced management by 2/3 compared with when we kicked off this work.

The 88,000 people of Bayer are doing more, faster, with less. All in all, we recognize progress on our comprehensive turnaround plan, but the journey is far from over.

There's much more to do in each of our priorities and each of our businesses. Our focus is on the important work ahead.

One of those key priorities is significantly containing litigation. 2 weeks ago, Monsanto and plaintiffs' lawyers in the US announced a nationwide class settlement to resolve eligible current and future cases in the glyphosate litigation.

Today, I want to reiterate a few key points: First, the class settlement is moving through approvals. Just as we said 2 weeks ago, we're confident in the merits of the agreement.

We await the judge's ruling and will be ready for any scenario. Second, Monsanto has filed its opening briefs with the US Supreme Court, and the case has received strong support in the form of amici briefs from the US government, attorneys general in 15 states, the US Chamber of Commerce, and many others.

We will continue preparing our case in anticipation of a ruling, likely in the second half of June. We're particularly grateful for the backing we've gotten from farmer groups across the United States who know better than anyone how important glyphosate is for their work.

In fact, the White House recently recognized how essential glyphosate is for US food security with an executive order. We share that view, and we're fully prepared to comply.

Overall, our multipronged strategy proceeds apace. We know we have some important milestones ahead of us.

We'll stay focused on taking the right steps for the company and remaining prepared for all outcomes. Beyond that, this issue has garnered a lot of attention lately, and in the coming months, we expect a rigorous debate about American agriculture and what's needed to create a food system that's robust, sustainable, healthy, and regulated by sound science.

We appreciate that people come to this issue with a range of opinions, and we welcome that conversation. Most importantly, we've got to be clear on the facts.

Fact one: glyphosate's safety is resoundingly confirmed by regulators. More than 50 countries, including the US, Canada, countries across Europe, all say so.

These are thorough reviews, not designed at getting clicks or going viral, but carefully assessing risk and reaching scientific assessments. Fact two: glyphosate is essential for agriculture and food systems.

It keeps carbon in the soil and protects harvests from being wiped out by weeds. It keeps a trip to the grocery store affordable at a time when food prices are a topic of concern.

American farmers are a bedrock of the nation's economy and a force for food security around the world. We want to keep it that way.

Fact three: litigation in the US is big business. Litigation costs amount to more than $600 billion a year.

That's taking more than $4,000 out of the pockets of every American household every year, and it's growing, thanks to backing by private equity and foreign investors who enjoy tax-free returns. Last week, The Washington Post called on Congress to pass tort reform and specifically cited the glyphosate litigation as an example of how this system has gone wrong.

The next time the narrative is framed as sticking it to the big corporation, people should question who is actually the big corporation here and who's ultimately bearing the costs. For years now, we've been on the record on this issue and many others surrounding the glyphosate litigation.

We've made our case to politicians across political lines and the general public. We'll continue to be clear and transparent about our interests.

We'll engage with people of different opinions, and we'll hope to find common ground. Most importantly, when it comes to questions this big, we will always start with what's true.

Beyond litigation, we have a full agenda for 2026. We have ambitions to help many more patients with Nubeqa and Kerendia.

2026 will be the first full year of sales for both Beyonttra and Lynqveo, and we want to launch asundexian as soon as possible. Our Crop Science business set the foundation in 2025, establishing its five-year framework.

Execution is underway and will continue in 2026, with the goal of improving the top and bottom line in 2026, all while preparing important launch plans scheduled for '27 and beyond. Consumer Health plans to advance its Road to Billions strategy, offsetting an uncertain market by making the right investment decisions in categories where we have the most to win.

In a year where we're bearing the brunt of the related impact, we're exercising vigilant discipline in how we manage our resources. Cash conversion is of the utmost importance.

Deleveraging remains a big focus area, and Wolfgang will tell you more about our financing plans for this year. We're laser-focused on delivering the €2 billion in organizational savings through our operating model.

In terms of our outlook, we expect a solid performance in 2026, with broader declines in Pharma and Crop Science due to loss of exclusivity and regulatory pressure in the EU, offset by continued strong performance of our launch products and our annual portfolio refresh. In addition, we want to ensure continued investment in our pipeline and launch products in 2026 to set ourselves up for growth in 2027 and beyond.

Before accounting for FX changes, we see our core earnings per share landing roughly in line with last year. As we shared 2 weeks ago, we're expecting a negative free cash flow this year due to the litigation-related payouts.

That outlook is emblematic of the company's current strategic position: strong signs of progress, but still working on a comprehensive turnaround. We've made major gains across the company, but that work is not yet complete.

We're focused on delivering what we've committed for 2026 and making the right long-term decisions to set Bayer up for sustained profitable growth. We have a clear picture of what needs to be done in every area.

We're dialed in on the tasks at hand, and we're ready to deliver. Wolfgang will walk you through the numbers, but before that, Heike is going to tell you more about our progress in implementing our new operating model.

Over to you, Heike.

Thank you very much, Bill. Ladies and gentlemen, let me give you a brief overview of where we stand with the transition of Bayer to our new operating model, Dynamic Shared Ownership, or DSO for short.

Today, 2.5 years after its announcement, DSO is the operating model of the Bayer Group in all countries, in all divisions, in all enabling functions. We are now organized as an agile network of teams, and with redesigned HR processes, we are placing more and more decisions in the hands of our employees.

The reduction in bureaucracy is also reflected in our costs, which we were able to reduce by a further €700 million last year. By the end of this year, the savings achieved through DSO will total €2 billion, as announced previously.

DSO has not only reduced costs. Bayer has become noticeably leaner, more flexible, and more effective overall.

An outstanding example of this are the recent product launches by our Pharmaceuticals division, some of which took place in record time. I myself worked in the pharma business for a long time, and I know what an enormous achievement this is and how important it is to get a new product to market and to patients quickly.

With DSO, innovations are created more quickly and they reach our customers in the shortest possible time, directly benefiting patients, farmers, and consumers. With that, I'm handing it over to you, Wolfgang.

Thank you very much, Heike, and also a warm welcome from my side. Let's together take a closer look at the group financials for the full year 2025.

In a pivotal year, we fully achieved our raised financial guidance for all group KPIs. Group net sales grew by 1% year over year in currency- and portfolio-adjusted terms.

All divisions delivered their adjusted guidance. Let me briefly highlight the main business drivers by division.

For Crop Science, the anticipated regulatory headwinds from the dicamba label vacature and the Movento expiration were offset by strong corn seeds and traits growth. That was driven by several factors: First, we had historically high corn acreage in North America, strong performance of our corn seeds and traits globally, and finally, a portion of incremental licensing revenue from the resolutions with Corteva in Q4.

Let me pause here for a few additional comments on the Corteva resolutions. First, the resolutions represent licensing fees rightfully owed to us for the usage of our proprietary technology across multiple periods, including the years '25 and '26.

Licensing fees are an important element of our business model and thus are accounted for as operating revenue. Second, based on content and timing of the resolutions, about €300 million supported our corn performance in Q4 '25, and as you may have read in the annual report, about €450 million will support our soy performance in Q1 '26, which is reflected in our outlook.

We always had a high level of confidence that we would prevail, but these numbers were higher than what we had modeled before. Third, given the positive impact, we decided to advance certain strategic measures like product portfolio streamlining.

Together with an impact on incentives, this is largely offsetting the positive effect on licensing income in '25. It is important to note that the underlying operational targets would have been achieved without these effects as well.

Our Pharma business fully delivered on its raised guidance. Nubeqa and Kerendia continued their significant growth momentum and finished the year ahead of our raised expectations.

With that, the launch assets performance more than offset the expected decline in Xarelto, as well as headwinds in Eylea. Our Consumer Health division delivered resilient performance in a challenging market environment, with net sales stable year over year and in line with our revised guidance.

Nutritionals were particularly affected by difficult market conditions in China and the US, while softer seasonality in cough, cold, and allergy led to a decline in this category. As previously indicated, our group top line was impacted by material FX headwinds of around €1.7 billion, largely driven by the depreciation of the US dollar, the Brazilian real, and hyperinflation currencies.

Let's now move to the bottom line. Group EBITDA before special items came in at €9.7 billion.

Compared to the prior year, negative foreign exchange effects of around €500 million weighed on profitability. We also saw higher incentive provisions and growth investments compared to the prior year, while top-line growth and cost savings helped to compensate.

In an important year for our transformation, all our divisions and the enabling functions delivered on their profitability commitments, balancing necessary growth investments with disciplined resource allocation and cost savings. Core earnings per share came in at €4.91.

The decline versus the prior year was driven by the expected lower EBITDA before special items and includes FX headwinds of about 30 cents. Our core financial result came in better than expected.

The core financial result improved markedly over the prior year due to lower interest expenses and positive changes in at-equity results. Reported earnings per share were at -€3.68.

Main drivers for the delta, next to the regular amortization of intangibles, are the significant litigation-related provisions and liabilities classified as special items. Litigation-related special items amounted to €7.5 billion in total, including the increase that we announced 2 weeks ago.

Let me also clarify that our litigation-related provisions and liabilities are based on a comprehensive assessment. The provisions and liabilities of €11.8 billion contain all litigation-related costs we know today and can reliably forecast, also covering past glyphosate verdicts, either settled or pending in appeals.

Our free cash flow came in at the upper end of our guidance range at €2.1 billion. The anticipated year-over-year decrease is mainly driven by the expected higher incentive and litigation-related payouts.

Net financial debt was reduced to below €30 billion by the end of '25, and that was due to the cash flow contribution and about €1.4 billion in foreign exchange tailwinds driven by a weaker US dollar. Let's now move to the outlook for 2026.

Let me start by explaining the background for a methodology change that we will implement for our core earnings per share KPI as of this year. What we want to achieve is to provide enhanced transparency around our operational performance, reflecting necessary costs of doing business and moving core EPS closer to the reported EPS.

Previously, our core EPS definition only included the core depreciation linked to usual depreciation of property, plant, and equipment. All amortization of intangibles were excluded.

As of this year, we will also factor in the amortization of certain intangible assets, in particular software. The change in methodology leads to an approximately 35 cent step-down in '25.

Adjusting for the new methodology, we come from the €4.91 that I just mentioned to €4.57 for core EPS in 2025. For '26, we anticipate stable core earnings per share at constant currencies on a like-for-like basis.

All businesses plan to further progress in their transformation, continue to execute their strategic agenda, and set the basis for future growth. This includes continued savings as well as investments in innovation and launches.

Overall expected higher earnings contributions from Crop Science and Consumer Health will be offset by anticipated lower earnings in Pharma, in line with the divisional strategies. On the corporate level, our outlook assumes higher long-term incentive provisions due to the increased share price compared to the end of '25.

This also results in higher reconciliation costs. We also expect higher interest expenses impacting our core financial result.

This is driven by an anticipated increase in net financial debt due to the substantial litigation-related payouts and the resulting negative free cash flow for 2026. Finally, on geopolitics.

Let me start by addressing the recently started war in the Middle East. Our thoughts are with the people across the region.

Our focus is on ensuring the safety of our people and the continuity of our business. At this point in time, we do not see a material impact on our business, and we will continue to closely monitor the situation.

We are in close contact with our people on the ground and ensure continued supply of our essential products. Regarding tariffs and FX, we are prepared to deal with a new dimension of volatility across businesses and regions.

In '25, we successfully managed a dynamic trade environment and limited the impact of additional tariffs. This was achieved through a combination of mitigating measures by our cross-functional teams, as well as tariff exemptions based on the relevance of our products.

Our new way of working was provided to be extremely helpful handling the situation, and we will continue to build on that strength going forward. For '26, our outlook includes our latest assessment of estimated direct and indirect geopolitical impacts.

As mentioned previously, we expect foreign exchange rates fluctuations to remain a major swing factor. Based on year-on-year spot rates, we anticipate continued foreign exchange headwinds of about 30 cents to our core earnings per share, as shown on the right side of the chart.

Managing our FX exposure in geopolitical context has been a major priority for us in '25 and will continue to be a priority for us in 2026. Overall, we will continue to monitor the situation very closely.

This includes the future of the US-EU trade relations following the recent court ruling on tariffs. Let me summarize with the outlook for the group KPIs for '26.

We anticipate net sales of €45 to €47 billion at constant currencies, representing a growth range of 0% to 3% in currency- and portfolio-adjusted terms. For EBITDA before special items, we target between €9.6 and €10.1 billion in '26 at constant currencies, representing a -1% to +4% development versus the prior year.

As mentioned, core earnings per share are expected to come in between €4.30 and €4.80 at constant currencies. Now free cash flow outlook of -€1.5 to -€2.5 billion at constant currencies, we account for the expected significant litigation-related payout of around €5 billion, as we also announced 2 weeks ago.

With the negative cash flow, we expect net financial debt to increase to between €32 and €33 billion at constant currencies. As also announced 2 weeks ago, ultimate financing for the litigation resolutions is planned to rely on senior bonds and instruments receiving equity credit by the rating agencies and not on the AGM-authorized capital increase.

While finalizing these measures, please note that the current net financial debt outlook for now is conservatively reflecting straight debt financing. With that, I'll hand it over to you, Rodrigo.

Thank you, Wolfgang. In Crop Science, we have built a more agile organization through our DSO and strengthened our operational discipline through our five-year framework.

That discipline is already delivering tangible impacts. It shows up in three areas of our core business and the differentiated growth we see through the end of the decade: Number one, in the resilient performance we delivered in 2025.

Number two, in the clear step forward we expect in 2026. In number three, in the progress already made against our five-year framework, laying the foundation for a stronger performance through the midterm.

Before turning to 2026 specifically, let me anchor us in where we stand in the five-year framework, because this is the lens through which we manage the business and the roadmap that guides every decision we make. We are on track to deliver across a triangle: sales growth, margin, and cash.

We strengthen the operational foundation of the business by simplifying the portfolio and sharpening our footprint. We are firmly on course to deliver the more than €1 billion margin improvement.

Actions included divesting and outsourcing multiple active ingredients, exiting nearly 200 crop protection products, and streamlining our global sites footprint from crop protection to seed production. We are also exiting lower-return vegetable crops and the non-core seed treatment equipment business.

As we advance our efforts, portfolio streamlining and go-to-market models will largely completed by year end. Innovation remains our engine for future growth.

Protecting our proprietary traits and R&D capability is critical. Simply put, the recent resolution with Corteva is licensing revenue for the use of our technology.

It does not changes our growth outlook or licensing expectation. It does ensure fair compensation for our technology today and well into the future, and it safeguards the value of our innovation engine, which advanced six projects and introduced 470 new hybrids and varieties last year.

Our industry-leading pipeline positioned us for differentiated, durable growth. Our first blockbuster, Plenaxis, is now launched, and we will expand into Brazil this year.

Icafolin submissions are complete, and the new Gold Camelina is now in the market for biofuels. The nine additional blockbusters are on track for upcoming introductions.

That includes the Preceon Smart Corn introduced with biotech approach, and also the Viconic in 2027 and 2028. As followed closely by our fifth-generation herbicide-tolerant soybean trait positioned us for double-digit share growth and put us firmly on our path to reclaim the number one soybean trait position in North America.

This is the strength of our pipeline. We have unprecedented number of market-shaping innovations on the horizon, with a clear pathway for growth.

So 2026 represents another step forward in delivering our five-year framework. We expect ag market fundamentals to remain challenging and project below-average market growth.

However, our resilient base and focused execution give us confidence. While we benefit from the license income, we will continue pushing hard on our five-year framework measure.

Overall, 2026 is another year of diligent execution of our strategic plan, setting us for the future. Our core business growth is expected at 1% to 4%, currency- and portfolio-adjusted.

An important contributor for this growth is the recent approval of the Stryke-X dicamba formulation. This marks the first step in reestablishing the momentum of our North America soybean business, giving farmers the added flexibility they've been waiting for.

For 2026, we expect Stryke-X herbicide growth, as well pricing gains in soy and cotton. Still, we do not expect full recovery yet, preparing for the Viconic introduction in 2027.

For corn, we expect low single-digit growth globally based on anticipated price and market share increases, despite the acreage reduction in the US. In core crop protection, we anticipate softened growth on higher volumes driven by new products, offset continued pricing pressure and the EU regulatory impact as previously expected.

For glyphosate, tariffs recently have been reduced on China imports into the US, and the generic PRC pricing has been declined below the historical median. With that, we currently expect glyphosate sales to decrease by 2% to 6% comparing to the prior year.

We will continue to monitor the situation and adjust pricing as needed to the separately managed commodity business. As we look at calendarization, the noted soy licensing revenue will benefit the first quarter.

However, lower tariffs and generic price declines are adversely affecting glyphosate sales. In addition, we expect a soft start to the crop protection season, on top of the continued regulatory effects in Europe.

Our growth drivers, such as Stryke-X sales, will only emerge later in the season. On the bottom line, we extend our margin profile.

We expect EBITDA margin before special items of 20% to 22% at constant currency, inclusive of the dilutive glyphosate margins. This reflects continued cost discipline, as well as pricing and mix benefits from portfolio streamlining in line with our five-year framework.

For example, in soy, we are focused on pricing to value and improved utilization rates over top-line growth. We will monitor currency closely as sales seasonality in the soft currency markets like Brazil can create volatility in both top- and bottom-line results.

Taking together, these factors underpin a realistic, execution-focused 2026 outlook and underscore the momentum we are building for the years ahead. Our sharpened portfolio, leaner footprint, and increasingly resilient earnings model gives us strong confidence in delivering our midterm targets and navigating ag cycles with greater consistency.

With that, over to you, Stefan.

Thank you, Rodrigo. In the Pharmaceuticals division, we continue to make really great progress on our strategic agenda.

We have now entered the last year of what we are calling our resilience phase. We're well on track in renewing our top line and our strategy of balancing expected declines for our mature products with growth from new products, which is well working out.

I will shortly provide more details on our expectations for 2026. However, I want to also highlight that we're well set for our next wave of growth into the next decade.

This is driven by significant, sustained growth momentum of Nubeqa and Kerendia, a very successful launch of Beyonttra, the first launch of Lynqveo in the US, as well as very positive data presented for asundexian only a few weeks ago. We've also demonstrated great successes in our efforts to grow our pipeline value and nourishing our foundation for future growth.

Driven by our new innovation model, we have progressed 16 clinical programs across the development phases and achieved approval for five new key indications or products in 2025. I already mentioned asundexian, but I do want to reiterate the genuine excitement we witnessed among attending physicians at ISC in New Orleans just a few weeks ago.

Not many were expecting such groundbreaking results. With this potential new treatment option in secondary stroke prevention, we may have an opportunity to truly rewrite the future for stroke survivors and their families.

In addition, we're continuing to leverage our new operating model for increased performance, and we have consequently been able to sustain our margin in the mid-20s range. All of this despite facing continued loss of exclusivity and pricing pressures, while we continue to invest in our launches and also in our pipeline.

Moving into 2026, we expect an unbroken growth momentum for Nubeqa and Kerendia, amounting to an expected growth of approximately 50% at constant currencies. This will be driven by continued market penetration and indication expansions, such as the upcoming EU approval for Kerendia in heart failure, following the recent positive CHMP opinion.

This growth momentum will be further supported by the continued launch dynamics of Beyonttra and also Lynqveo. While we were able to defend Xarelto well in 2025 overall, we experienced the expected increased generic pressure towards the year end.

We therefore also expect a slight acceleration of relative declines in 2026 in comparison to last year, being in a range of -35% to -40%. Given the accelerated pricing pressures we have seen for Eylea, with the entry of 2 mg biosimilars since Q3 2025, which we may have slightly underestimated, we will focus our activities to build on the strong clinical profile and unparalleled label of Eylea 8 mg.

We plan to significantly expand Eylea 8 mg's contribution to the Eylea franchise to approximately 70% and sustain our market-leading position in volume shares. Despite these efforts, we will likely see declines for our Eylea franchise in the range of approximately 20% to 25% at constant currencies in 2026, with the pricing pressures somewhat leveling out thereafter.

Since 2 mg biosimilars only entered the market fairly recently, we will continue to closely observe and evaluate the evolving situation, and we'll provide updates as we gain more clarity, as per our usual reporting practice. In line with the stringent shift of resources to focus our activities on our current and future growth drivers, as well as our continued pricing pressures and declines in our mature product portfolio, we expect a modest contraction of our base business in 2026.

In sum, we're expecting growth of 0% to +3% at constant currencies for this last year of our resilience phase, before returning to mid-single-digit growth as of 2027. While hovering over a prior year during which the pricing pressures increased over the quarters, and Nubeqa and Kerendia will continue to grow as this year progresses, we expect the top line for the second half of 2026 to come in stronger than in the first half.

Looking at our 2026 margin, we would expect that the impact of a changed product mix and increased growth investments throughout the year will only be partly balanced by cost savings from efficiency measures. We therefore expect a 2026 EBITDA margin before special items of 23% to 25% at constant currencies, as we keep working to expand our margin as of 2028 towards 30% by 2030.

With that, over to you, Julio.

Thank you, Stefan. As we review our performance and set our priorities, I want to begin with the progress we're making on our Road to Billions strategy.

Last year's market environment was challenging for two reasons: First, market dynamics in the US and China; and second, the continuation of seasonal softness in cough, cold, and allergy. Despite these obstacles, we have stayed committed to our strategic approach, focusing on areas where we can create the most value and actively respond to evolving market conditions.

By focusing our efforts on the highest-potential categories, we continue to advance our goal of reaching billions of consumers and creating sustainable value for our business. Across markets, consumers are more deliberate in their spending.

They compare, they seek more, and they have more ways to shop. E-commerce continues to scale quickly, while traditional retail consolidates.

Retailers and pharmacies, particularly in the US and China, have reduced inventory levels to manage working capital more tightly. Despite this backdrop, the fundamentals of our business remain attractive.

A growing middle class, rise in self-care adoption, and constrained healthcare systems continue to support durable demand for our categories. In the near term, we expect continued volatility in China and the United States, with performance likely to contract.

Over the long term, we expect both markets to return to a sustainable, healthy growth pattern. While allergy, cough, and cold have been soft for 2 years, the fundamentals underlying our categories remain very solid.

As one of the top three global players in fast-moving consumer health, we're well positioned to capture this growth. We hold leadership positions in categories such as dermatology, digestive health, and cardio.

Our balanced portfolio across seven treatment and prevention categories pairs global megabrands with very strong local heroes. This mix gives us resilience in the short term and significant room for expansion over the long term.

Our Road to Billions strategy is designed to convert this foundation into sustainable value creation. At its core, the strategy aims to increase household penetration by reaching billions of consumers through both online and offline channels, as well as through our strong presence in pharmacy and healthcare professional settings.

In the medium term, this support consistent sell-out growth and more predictable sell-in. Looking ahead to 2026, we expect continued macro geopolitical volatility.

Given our geographic footprint and the segments where we compete, we expect our relevant market to grow by about 2% to 3%. This is about 100 basis points slower than the total consumer health market.

Category dynamics, geographic mix, and elevated volatility underpin our net sales growth outlook of 0% to 4% in currency- and portfolio-adjusted terms. Building on our 2025 base, we aim for continued value recovery.

In the United States and China, our two biggest markets will play a crucial role in our overall performance. Slowing growth and market volatility there could heavily influence our results.

Consumer confidence remains soft. If consumer spending picks up and seasonal categories see higher incidence, we might achieve the higher end of our growth forecast.

If not, growth could be toward the lower end. Given the volatility and its impact on our top line, our EBITDA margin outlook before special items for 2026 is 22% to 24% on a constant currency basis.

Savings from our new operating model and active cost management are expected to offset annual cost increases. We continue to reinvest portions of this efficiencies to strengthen brand equity and gain market share.

We will continue to accelerate investment in e-commerce and AI across brand building and activation, customer engagement, and product supply. Prioritizing self-care and empowering people to take control of their health has never been more important.

Through our Road to Billions strategy, focus on building trusted brands, we're uniquely positioned to meet needs of consumers, creating lasting impact and long-term value. Thank you.

With that, over to you, Michael, for the Q&A.

Thank you very much, Julio, and thank you to all the board members for the presentations. Let's now start the Q&A session.

Here's what you need to do to ask a question: First, make sure that Zoom is the only active chat program open on your computer, and make sure your microphone is activated in Zoom. If that is the case, you can use the raise hand function, and we will register your interest, and when it's your turn, I will call your name.

A pop-up window will then open on your screen, and when you see this pop-up window, please unmute yourself, and then you can ask your question. Your camera will remain off during this time.

Now let's get started and see who's going to be first in line. We're just waiting.

Again, you can raise the hand function. Then we see who's going to get the first question of you.

We have a first question coming from Annette Becker from Börsen-Zeitung, followed by Antje Höning from Rheinische Post. First question, Annette, over to you.

I hope you can hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

I have two questions. First, I'd like to know why your Q4 results are, in the operating version, extremely weak.

The EBITDA reduced to 16%. Then the second one, what does the negative free cash flow for this year mean for the dividend you're paying out next year, because your shareholders have now 3 years of minimum dividend, and I think that's not so good for time-lasting.

Thanks for the questions, Annette. Let me comment on the second one first, which is that the dividend decision will be taken at a later date when we have results of the year, but we'll be making a recommendation regarding that in due time, but we don't have any comment on that right now.

I'll turn it over to Wolfgang for a little more perspective on the Q4 results. You have to remember that because a large part of our business is in agriculture, and agriculture is seasonal, that the EBITDA margins go up and down accordingly, but maybe, Wolfgang, you could provide a little more color.

I think you're absolutely right. As a matter of fact, we also don't look at quarterly results too much.

We were really focused on the annual results, and as we've said, we fully achieved everything on every KPI. There was nothing extraordinary in Q4 worth mentioning.

I think we have to say we increased our expectations in August of 2025, and we've fully delivered on those increased expectations, I think we feel quite good about our Q4 results. Just some historical perspective: if you go back a year to what the expectations in terms of profit for Bayer were 1 year ago, we overdelivered that by about 9%, I don't think we would characterize it at all as weak, but rather strong.

I have two questions. One to Heike Prinz: how many jobs have been cut by DSO so far, and when will the cuts be completed, and how many jobs will then we have in totally?

To Bill Anderson, Bayer will sometime have to repay the debts incurred in settling the wave of lawsuits. Will this lead to a cost-cutting program, efficiency program, and further job cuts?

Thank you.

Thank you, Antje, for your questions. As I shared with you earlier today, DSO, our new operating model, has been implemented in all parts of our organization.

I think right now, really, the focus is on leveraging this operating model to drive performance in our businesses. Now, you will see in our publication that we are at 88,000 employees across the world, but we've also shared with you previously that DSO is not about having a head count target or a job cut target.

Really, the focus, as you've heard from also the divisional heads, is on driving performance in our businesses.

Antje, our big focus is our mission. You see it here behind us.

This is what we and the 88,000 people of Bayer come to work for every day, and we're really committed to do that in the best way possible. We are generating a lot of cash every year.

We're generating cash from our operations, and we plan to continue to do that by getting more productive. Whether that productivity is going to be mostly driven by revenue growth or whether there's going to be additional cost savings—we've announced cost savings that we plan to achieve by 2029 in Crop Science, we already announced that—but I think we've got a team that is really focused on driving this mission forward.

We've got exciting opportunities in Pharma, in Crop Science, in Consumer Health, and I think we will have no problem repaying our debt. I think our main question is how high can we go?

We're determined to go really far really fast. We've got an operating model in place that allows us to do that.

If you look across this company, whether it's in Consumer Health, where we're launching products now in well under a year that used to be 2 to 3 years of a life cycle to launch, we've got that under a year. If you look in Pharma at the progress we've made in the pipeline, but not only the progress in the pipeline, but how we're doing on launching those products, on bringing those to patients around the world, we've accelerated that dramatically by putting the power in the hands of our people.

In Crop Science, the work is really amazing what's happening throughout our world in product supply, in R&D, just amazing stuff in terms of our people having the power to make gains. What you hear about AI and productivity gains and you hear about job losses, what we're looking to do with AI is put it right into the hands of every Bayer person to extend their impact, to make them more effective every day for the mission.

I think we see an opportunity to dramatically increase productivity, but we want to do that a lot through growth.

Hello, good morning, and thank you for taking the time. In the outlook, you have a China tariff effect on glyphosate sales expectation.

Can you maybe explain this a little bit further, because I thought there's kind of a buy American movement right now in the US, or is that still a price topic? Then regarding to the White House glyphosate letter, could you maybe explain what that could mean looking in the future with the plans you have there for the phosphate?

Do you think that the latest efforts you had surrounding glyphosate and regulation and the litigation, that will have an effect on the Supreme Court, or is that not directly related at all? Thank you.

Thanks, Jonas. I'm just going to try to answer these both really quickly.

In terms of the tariff effect on glyphosate imports into the US: so last year, the rates of tariffs were generally 25% to 30 35%, even I think for brief periods a bit higher. As a result of that EPA ruling from the Supreme Court recently, that rate has dropped to 3%.

It basically has a corresponding drop in the price of generic glyphosate in the US, and so that results in price or volume losses for us, and we just have to deal with it. We're dealing with that.

I would say that that tariff rate remains kind of uncertain for the future, but at the moment it's about 3%. We have to deal with that by offsetting it with gains elsewhere, and we plan to do that.

In terms of the letter, the White House letter on glyphosate production: yeah, this has nothing to do with the Supreme Court, and actually has nothing to do with the settlement either. This is basically the US government recognizing the vital importance of glyphosate to the American farming system.

Frankly, glyphosate is vital to farming systems outside of the US as well. The administration is taking a position not wanting to be dependent on foreign sources for something that's essential for food security and national security.

We've received the letter. We intend to comply with it, and there's not much else to say.

Thanks for the questions.

Hello, good morning. Thanks for taking my question.

Bill, you said that you're ready for any scenario regarding the judge's decision for the settlement proposal. What is your plan in case it gets denied, and do you have a rough timeline of when you expect a decision?

Then also coming back to a broader question which you said in February that you will look at the company's structure in the future: will that be in 2026, do you expect, after the US Supreme Court's decision, or is that even further in the future? Thank you.

Thanks, Sonja. We have plans for every scenario.

I don't think we're going to speculate on a denial scenario, but I would say the timeline is days, you won't have to wait long for an answer there. In terms of the company structure question: basically what it comes down to, and you've heard that from our division heads and from Heike and Wolfgang, we just have so much going on.

We have five big issues we're tackling. We've made remarkable progress in 2025 and 2024.

We got more to do. We're not going to be distracted by talking about structure right now, but that said, we remain very much committed to tackling that question in due time, but I couldn't give you a particular timing.

Thanks for the questions, Sonja.

Yes, hello. Good morning.

I hope you can hear me. I've got two questions that may sound like beginners' questions to you.

Bill, you're emphasizing how much support you feel in the US regarding glyphosate and that glyphosate has been proven safe by regulators of more than 50 countries, including the US, of course. Can you please once more explain why, then, did you even agree to the recent settlement with the plaintiffs that are putting quite a strain on Bayer financially?

Doesn't that contradict your commitment to focusing on the facts and your criticism of the litigation business? Second, would it be possible for Bayer to withdraw from the settlement, partly or fully, if the Supreme Court rules in Bayer's favor in June?

Jens, I think those are very reasonable questions, and I wouldn't categorize them as beginners' questions, but I think we can all recognize that the litigation situation in the US is very complex. This is not a new phenomenon.

I remember as a boy sitting at the dinner table hearing conversation about the tort system and some of the strange results that it could produce. This is not a new thing.

The fundamental issue that's before the Supreme Court is whether the scientific endeavors of hundreds of scientists can be basically overturned by a jury of non-experts based on a very small set of facts, as opposed to an exhaustive, decades-long set of facts. That's kind of what's at play.

Nevertheless, the system is quite challenging for companies, and we believe that this settlement agreement is the right approach at the right time because the company needs to move on. This has been a huge drag on Bayer for almost a decade, and that needs to stop, because we have a mission that's more important than a court fight, and so we got to get on with it.

The Supreme Court case and the settlement are distinct. They accomplish different things.

The Supreme Court case is asking a fundamental question about whether the EPA has the authority to govern pesticide labels and questions of pesticide safety, or whether that gets played out in hundreds or thousands of courtrooms. That's really important not just for glyphosate or for our past verdicts, but it's also very important for the future of new innovative tools, like new crop protection products that we want to launch, that are important for farmers as they continue to struggle to basically put affordable food on the table.

That's very important for that. The settlement is something that's important for Bayer in terms of moving on.

Thanks for your questions, Jens.

Yes. Good morning all together.

Hope you can hear me? No, you can't hear me?

Yep, we can. You can just go ahead.

Okay. Yeah.

Thank you. Bill, can you give us another assessment on how Bayer views the conflict in the Middle East?

I guess you source many intermediate products from Asia in the pharmaceutical business via hubs in the Middle East. Are you concerned about problems in the supply chain?

Thanks, Bert. First off, as Wolfgang mentioned, and I think we all share this, our first concern is for the safety of our employees in the Middle East region and for all the innocents there.

We hope and pray for a rapid cessation and a lasting peace, and there needs to be a solution for lasting peace there. The short answer, though, regarding your question: we're not particularly concerned about our supply chain.

We're not heavily dependent on Middle Eastern hubs for our supply chain, we don't anticipate any interruptions in supply.

We were about to hear you.

Bill, how was your trip with Chancellor Merz to China, and which role does China play for Bayer? Is it more for your Pharmaceutical division, or do you sell Crop Science products like glyphosate in China?

Thank you.

Thanks, Elisabeth. It was a very eye-opening trip, very interesting to see continued remarkable progress in China and in building out infrastructure, in the strength of various innovative industries.

I think yeah, it was very useful dialogue, and we have about 7,000 people in China working in Pharmaceuticals, Crop Science, and Consumer Health. Our biggest division in China is Pharmaceuticals, and we have production there.

We have production for all three divisions in China, but it's an important market, it's an important innovative hub, and we have very good relations with our Chinese partners. Again we have a mission of Health for all, Hunger for none, that takes us pretty much to every corner of the globe.

We see yeah, the need to feed the world in a way that is environmentally sustainable as something that's everybody's business. It's sort of every citizen of the world has a stake in that, likewise with medicines and everyday human health products that we have from our Consumer Health division.

I think we've been in China for about 150 years, and we're very pleased with our great colleagues in China and the importance of continuing to drive innovation and access to these important tools for producing food and medicines.

Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity.

I have two questions. One is on your net financial debt.

It went below €30 billion in 2025, and it was down a lot, 8.5%, but it's going up again in 2026. Now, I was looking at your ratings.

You have three ratings from S&P's, Moody's, and Fitch with a negative outlook, and the level that you are, a downgrade would be quite painful, because you would get to the last grade before speculative grade. I've seen that you want to avoid that.

You're looking for an upgrade. I also saw that you were a solid A rating before the Monsanto.

I was wondering whether you think that a good solution, final, on litigation would have an impact on your ratings with the possibility of going back to A. My second question is on Europe.

As Europe has in a way so momentum, there are flows of capital coming back to Europe. Here in Europe the growth is weak, but do you see any potential, and are you looking at Europe to increase your investments here?

Thank you.

Thank you very much for your questions, Isabella. I'll take the first one on the net financial debt.

Thanks for recognizing that we came below 30. That was significantly better than the street expectation.

It was really driven by free cash flow performance, and we had a bit of a translation effect there as well. I think you have seen that we will be up slightly because we have a negative free cash flow expected for this current year, and that's largely driven by the €5 billion expected payouts for settlements and defense costs, and so on.

We could be higher up, but I also said in the script that will depend on the final takeout financing. This is all simulated based on straight debt, and like we said before, we will likely use instruments that receive at least partial equity rating by the rating agencies.

That brings me to the rating agencies. You should expect that we have a very, very solid dialogue with the rating agencies on an ongoing basis.

That's very valuable for us, and we keep them apprised of all the developments, in particular as it relates to the financing as well. Of course, like every other stakeholder, they look at the developments on the litigation front as well, and as Bill said, hopefully over the next couple of weeks and months, we see things going the right way there.

Lastly, yes, the company has always been focused on an A-category kind of rating, meaning leverage of something around 2.5 or less. We like that rating from an accessibility viewpoint, from a flexibility viewpoint, and that's our midterm target.

Probably the last thing is 26 will be the brunt of the litigation payouts. We also said that that €5 billion will reduce to a billion per year for the subsequent 5 years, and then it will be going down significantly.

If you pair that with the growth outlook that my colleagues have specified in particular for '27, you should see the company making significant progress in that regard, and that will hopefully also be realized and recognized by the rating agencies. Bill, I think you do the Europe piece.

Thanks for the question. I think, Isabella, it's a mixed picture, the question of investment in Europe.

It's simple: we need basically more energy, we need lower energy prices in Europe, and less regulation. I think the experiment that's been run over the last decade, the idea that sort of Europe could lead out in regulation and that would provide a competitive advantage, I think that's a failed experiment.

I think that's becoming more and more obvious every day. I think those are some of the things that we would be able to invest more if we had yeah, better access on energy, less regulation, less bureaucracy.

That being said, we're making major investments in Europe. For example, in Monheim, very close to Leverkusen, we're building a new, state-of-the-art chemical research facility that is going to be a base for crop protection research and development for decades.

We have cell and gene therapy production that's rapidly either being built or expanding in both Berlin and in San Sebastián in Spain. In Italy, I was in Italy I can't remember, maybe a year and a half ago, and I got to see some production we have there in the Milano vicinity that's sending really innovative healthcare products to the world.

We also is one of a few countries where we launched our short-stature corn system, which is going to revolutionize corn production around the world, and Italian farmers are some of the lead innovators there in adoption. I think there's amazing potential for future innovation in Europe, but there's more work that needs to be done.

Hi. Thank you for taking my questions.

I've got two, please. I understand now is not the time for a decision on a split, but is the work that you're doing on Crop Science portfolio in line with getting the business ready for an IPO, and making it more attractive to investors?

I ask because BASF and Syngenta have been doing M&A in biologicals, and that makes it more attractive to the sort of investor crowd. The second question would be probably one for Rodrigo: is there any interest in the new molecule opportunities at FMC, the partnerships they're talking about, and perhaps the same for Corteva's split, I guess?

Thank you.

Okay. Maybe I'll make a comment on the first one and then hand it over to Rodrigo.

I think our basis for proceeding with all of our work at Bayer with respect to our divisions, our businesses is we need to be the best home for every business, and that means we have to be the most innovative, the leanest, the fastest, and so I think all the measures that Rodrigo and his colleagues are taking in Crop Science would be a benefit to Bayer Crop Science as part of Bayer or as a standalone entity. I don't think there's any kind of tension there.

That's the mentality we have to have with each of our businesses is we've got to be the leanest, fastest, most innovative, simply put. Rodrigo, any comments

on

FMC? Sure.

Thank you, Andrew. Again, this is part of our five-year framework, and I think the discipline that we are on the execution of that five-year framework is very important.

That includes, Andrew, that we have a very robust pipeline of crop protection, right? We talk about Plenaxis, the first one that we launched, we have Icafolin coming, Covintro, Stryke-X, and many other products that we have in our portfolio.

We are always open for collaborations and with different companies on biologicals. We have an open collaboration work that we do.

No specifics to the two companies that you mentioned, but we have a strong portfolio coming in the next years, and I'm very excited about the work that we are doing on R&D on crop protection using AI to really move faster on the invention of new molecules. I feel that we're going to be focused on launching these new technologies to the farmers in the next years, and this is really exciting and keeping the discipline on the execution that we lay out last year.

Thank you.

Thank you. I have two questions for Mr.

Bill Anderson, following the previous questions on your latest trip to China with German Chancellor. The first one is: do you have any special impressions from this visit, like an impressive moment or observation that stood out to you this time?

How have you observed the living and working conditions of people there in China? The second question is: well, this year China starts its first year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, underscoring openness and innovation, which is also Bayer's core strategy.

Would Bayer see this more as an opportunity and alignment, or pressure competing with other international companies there? Thank you.

Sure. Thanks Yonglong.

There were a lot of really impressive things to see. It was great to see, for example, the partnership between Mercedes and the local companies on autonomous driving, and so the Chancellor got to actually make a tour in the car that was basically driving itself.

You just put in the destination, and it goes. That's obviously pretty cool to see.

We were at Unitree, we got to see the robot demonstrations, the humanoid robots, that's kind of cool to experience them up close and personal. I think with respect to living and working conditions, it was a short trip, but I know that our 7,000 people at Bayer, they're very excited about the innovation that they're doing.

They've implemented Dynamic Shared Ownership also in China, which is a sort of unprecedented levels of empowerment for the individuals. It's not perfect yet.

It's not perfect anywhere in the world, but I know they're excited to continue to work on that. I think we have five innovation hubs now in China, and so we're excited about the opportunities to continue to innovate together with many partnerships in China.

I think we have over 100 collaborations with universities in China on various projects. What they all have in common is they're all about Health for all, Hunger for none, which is why we exist at Bayer.

We have 88,000 people in the world. We have 7,000 in China.

We're all working on one mission. Thanks again for the question, Yonglong.

Just a quick follow-up to Isabella Bufacchi's question. You spoke of the goal of less regulation in Europe as a failed experiment, and just to clarify, if you were to decide, what would then be your top one priority in terms of less regulation here in Europe?

What should be improved first here in your view? A personal question, because Mr.

Anderson, you have now been in office for about 3 years. Time is running fast.

If you were to take stock of your tenure so far, how would you assess your performance? Where are you satisfied, and where maybe have you fallen short of your own expectations?

Thanks a lot.

Thanks, Anja. I'm going to give you an answer that maybe is a little different than some that you'll hear on this question of less regulation in Europe, and how do you fight this bureaucracy.

I think, by the way, at Bayer, I think we're an interesting case study in how you fight bureaucracy, because let me give you an example: when we started our work almost 3 years ago, we had a rulebook for Bayer that was, I think it was 1,362 pages or something, some number like that. We could have said, "Okay, we need to cut that back, right?"

We probably would have spent the last 3 years taking that 1,300-page rulebook and making it 1,100 pages. That would have made zero impact.

You cannot fight bureaucracy with bureaucratic methods. Hey, let's form a bunch of committees, and let's see if we can write shorter rules, or let's see if we can take the 26 rules about I don't know, office furniture arrangement, and make it 20 rules.

Okay? That never works, because by the time you would cut back 20% of the rules, the system would have generated another 30%.

I have to say, and I give this advice when I'm asked to policymakers, politicians: you've got to create kind of some sort of safe harbors for innovation, because the amount of rules that exist—and by the way, some people blame Brussels, and maybe Brussels blames Berlin, and Berlin blames the state, and hey, there's too much everywhere. There needs to be some innovation zones created where whether large companies or new entities can come in and get going on things.

I think AI is a fascinating example, because everyone's racing to regulate it, whereas we don't even know what it is yet. Trying to write rules for things that haven't been done yet is the biggest folly.

I think there is a real rewiring that needs to be done, and I think there's a big wake-up call right now on that. Again, we could talk about that a lot, but I think this is something we have to get real about.

We're never going to fight bureaucracy with bureaucracy. You got to make a clean sweep.

What did we do with our 1,362-page rulebook? We killed it, and we replaced it with a 14-page Code of Conduct that everybody needs to follow.

All right? That is how you deal with bureaucracy.

You have to basically clear it out and start over from scratch, and I think there's some real thinking that needs to be done on that. In terms of assessing 3 years: first off, I don't think of it as about me, because when I arrived at Bayer, I sat down with some of these folks right here, as well as a whole bunch of our other leaders, and we basically said, "Hey, what do we want to do?

What do we want to achieve together?" We said, well, we identified four and then basically five things.

We said we need to rejuvenate the pharma pipeline, we need to really build up the productivity and profitability in Crop Science, we've got to get debt down, we've got to deal with the litigation situation, and we've got to tear out bureaucracy. I think we've made tremendous progress on all five of those things.

I think we all feel really good about that. When I talk to Bayer people, whether they're senior leaders or frontline workers, I always ask them, "So how do you feel about the progress we've made?"

People say, "Yeah, good. More than we thought we could do."

Almost everyone says, "Wow, we've changed more than any of us thought we could do." Then I always ask, "So how much more work do we have to do?"

You might think people would say, "Oh, well, I'm tired. Can we just take a break?"

People tell me consistently, "We have more to do than we've done so far." I actually find that exciting, because I think we have a lot more gains to make, and I know my colleagues feel very similarly.

We've made tremendous changes at Bayer in the last 2.5 years. We got a lot more to come, and we're excited about what those mean for our mission, for our customers, and for our shareholders.

Thanks for the question, Anja.

Hi. Can you hear me all right?

Yes, we can hear you.

Perfect. Good morning, and thank you for taking my question.

I have two, actually, really quick ones. In the past, you've mentioned that you would be willing to walk away from the glyphosate business if things don't really improve or get handled, especially since you've mentioned that it has been a drag on the business.

If everything doesn't go well in the next few days and weeks, is that something that still remains on the table for you? Secondly, I know you mentioned the 88,000 employee count right now, but I just wanted to understand if there was a to-date figure in terms of job cuts specifically as part of DSO, because I think you mentioned around 12,000 job cuts as part of the program back in August.

Thank you.

Aakash, what we've said about glyphosate is that we've been dealing with litigation over claims that are historical claims or from historical use of glyphosate, but we're still providing it because of its essential nature and because basically the verdict from farmers and regulators is that this is a really important option. We've said, "Hey, but there needs to be some sort of protection or some sort of change in the legal status."

We certainly see the settlement and SCOTUS are important topics. The recent executive order from the White House is also important on that.

We have to take that all into account. I think that it's important for these tools to be available for farmers, and certainly our actions will reflect that.

I think what have we said? I think we're saying is it 14?

Yes, 14.

There've been about

14,000

job reductions since we began implementing the new system. Some of those have to do with the new system explicitly.

Others are things like facilities that we closed or things that we exited that aren't specifically related to DSO, but just have to do with the changing economics of different product lines. Thanks for your questions, Akash.

Okay. Thank you very much for your questions and for your interest.

Thank you very much also for your answers. This concludes our financial news conference for today, and we all wish you a great day.

Thank you very much.