May 15, 2018

SumOfUs Organizes Bayer Shareholders to Oppose Proxy Item #2

GERMANY -- Ahead of Bayer’s annual general meeting of stockholders on Friday, May 25th, Bayer shareholders, represented by SumOfUs, an international consumer group, have filed a counter motion to calling on shareholders not to discharge the Board of Management because the company continued to produce pesticides - clothianidin and imidacloprid - that scientists have linked to the decline of pollinator populations.

VIEW THE COUNTER-MOTION HERE: https://www.bayer.com/en/stockholder-countermotions-2018.pdfx

More than 5700 shareholders using SumOfUs’ pension tool have contacted more than 368 mutual and investment funds asking them to support the counter-motion and oppose proxy item #2.

“The Bayer board of management must be held accountable for the company’s continued focus on the sale of  of neonicotinoid pesticides which are decimating bees and other pollinators around the world, threatening our food supply. Bayer continues to manufacture clothianidin and imidacloprid, even as the European Union as decided to extend existing restrictions on these insecticides due to the risks they pose to bees,” explained Wiebke Schroeder, Berlin-based Campaign Manager for SumOfUs. “This shortsighted focus on monetizing existing products presents a risk to Bayer shareholders.

Last month, a qualified majority of European governments voted to widen a ban on three-bee killing pesticides. More than 633,000 people around the world signed onto a petition started by SumOfUs, calling on the European governments to vote in favor of the European Commission’s proposal to widen the ban on bee-killing neonic pesticides.

View the petition here: https://actions.sumofus.org/a/european-neonics-ban-call