BAYRY Bayer Aktiengesellschaft (PK)

   By Cristina Roca 
 

Bayer AG (BAYN.XE) said Sunday that it has hired an external law firm to look into French media complaints that its Monsanto business had compiled lists of supportive and critical stakeholders.

The German chemical-and-pharmaceutical company said it has no indication that making the lists had been in violation of any laws, but that it understood that "this initiative has raised concerns and criticism."

On Friday, reports in French media said that Monsanto's public relations firm FleishmanHillard in 2016 compiled a dossier of more than 200 names, many of them journalists, organized based on their views on glyphosate and other topics, in order to exert influence on the approval of Monsanto's embattled weed killer.

Bayer said that it has suspended its cooperation with the external service providers that were involved in the making of the lists, and that the responsible Monsanto manager left the company shortly after it was bought by Bayer last June.

The commissioned law firm will inform all people on the lists about the information that was collected about them, Bayer said.

The company said it will support French public prosecutor office's recently-opened investigation into the matter.

Write to Cristina Roca at cristina.roca@dowjones.com; @_cristinaroca

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 13, 2019 01:48 ET (05:48 GMT)

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