index of Germany’s 30 largest listed firms. On April 26th 56% of shareholders in Bayer, a chemicals conglomerate, censured Werner Baumann and his management team. Most German bosses can count on nine in ten shareholders to back them in non-binding confidence votes. In 2015 a rebellion by a minority, of 39%, of Deutsche Bank’s owners, who censured Anshu Jain and Jürgen Fitschen, led both co-chief executives to announce their resignation.
Bayer shareholders have reason to be mutinous. Its share price has plunged by 40% since its takeover last June of Monsanto. It is now worth less than the $63bn it paid for the American seed-and-chemicals giant. Critics accuse Mr Baumann of infecting a healthy firm with underestimated legal risks related to Roundup, Monsanto’s blockbuster weedkiller.In August an American court awarded $289m to Dewayne Johnson, a terminally ill cancer patient who had been exposed to Roundup over many years.
Bayer is not the only German blue-chip company that has stumbled after an American misadventure. Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest carmaker, has so far paid $30bn in fines and compensation in America after it was caught fitting “defeat devices” in up to 11m cars worldwide to fool emissions tests. It is now trying to reinvent itself as Europe’s leading maker of electric vehicles.
the headline says 'so many..'. the article presents minor turbulence of one giant. clickbait.