Frankfurt, Germany, July 16--Bayer AG will spin off its Lanxess chemicals and polymers unit to shareholders and list it separately on the stock exchange at the beginning of next year, the German chemicals and drugs group said on Friday.
Lanxess is made up of most of Bayer's chemicals businesses and part of its polymers unit, and has annual sales of around 6 billion euros ($7.41 billion). The Bayer chemicals unit produces BayProtect, a the stain resist used in the carpet industry.
Bayer said in a statement that shareholder approval would be sought for the spin-off at an extraordinary stockholders' meeting in mid-November.
"In the current stock market climate, a spin-off to Bayer stockholders is the best route to a listing for Lanxess," Bayer Chief Executive Werner Wenning said in a statement.
"That way the present owners of Bayer's assets automatically remain the owners of the assets being transferred to Lanxess," he said, adding that Lanxess's business was developing "in line with expectations".
Bayer had been weighing whether to spin off Lanxess or to go for an initial public offering for the unit, but had said in the past that a spin-off was the preferred option.
