Bayer AG - Stockholders' Newsletter Second Quarter 2007

Focus

Strengthened commitment in education
and social affairs

Leverkusen. Bayer AG is strengthening its commitment in the areas of education, science and social affairs by consolidating its existing foundation activities into two new foundations: the Bayer Science & Education Foundation and the Bayer Cares Foundation.

Supporting young scientists is part of the focus of the Bayer Group's reorganized foundation activities. Our picture shows school students conducting various scientific experiments in the BayLab in Wuppertal.

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Supporting young scientists is part of the focus of the Bayer Group’s reorganized foundation activities. Our picture shows school students conducting various scientific experiments in the BayLab in Wuppertal.

“Bayer has a long tradition of foundation activity, which we are continuing with the establishment of the Bayer Science & Education Foundation and the Bayer Cares Foundation,” says Werner Wenning, Chairman of the Board of Management of Bayer AG. “Both foundations should make valuable contributions to resolving social problems, fully in keeping with our Mission Statement, “Bayer: Science For A Better Life.” The two foundations have a combined capital of €17.4 million. Together with the existing Hermann Strenger and Herbert Grünewald foundations, the Bayer foundations have total assets of €20.7 million.

The Bayer Science & Education Foundation promotes school and academic education and research focusing on medicine and the sciences. It awards scholarships to school and university students and honors scientists for outstanding achievements with the Otto Bayer Prize and the Hansen Family Award. Annual funding totaling €500,000 is channeled into schools in the communities near Bayer’s sites. For example, the Foundation helps with setting up laboratories, equipping classrooms, introducing innovative teaching methods or implementing initiatives such as the “Jugend forscht” science contest. As part of its new sports promotion strategy, Bayer has announced that it will redeploy some of the money previously spent on sports advertising to invest more in young people’s education. An amount of €10 million in foundation assets resulting from this redeployment will be used to finance school projects.

Given the increased significance of international experience, the Bayer Science & Education Foundation now also provides financial assistance to trainee science teachers working abroad as well as to trainee teachers from other countries spending time in Germany. In this respect it is so far unique among German science foundations. Grants to enable vocational trainees to spend periods abroad will continue to be provided by the Hermann Strenger Foundation.

Improving educational opportunities

“The Bayer Science & Education Foundation aims at helping improve educational opportunities in the communities near our sites, especially in Germany,” explains Dr. Wolfgang Plischke, Bayer Management Board member with responsibility for innovation, technology and the environment and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Foundation. “The demands of today’s knowledge-based society are very extensive and varied. We are responding to this situation by supporting both young talents and top specialists in those areas of science that are related to our core businesses of health care, nutrition and high-tech materials.”

Chairman of the Board of Trustees is Prof. Dr. Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker, Secretary General of the European Research Council. “Today more than ever, society must invest in education and science, fostering its brightest minds. Innovation and the availability of knowledge are the key to social progress,” explains Winnacker. The Bayer Cares Foundation, Bayer’s foundation for its social activities, focuses on three main areas. A new program specifically promotes voluntary work in the vicinities of Bayer’s sites. Citizens who conduct their own social projects can apply for a subsidy from the Foundation. In this way the Foundation intends particularly to support and honor corporate volunteering activities by Bayer employees. Apart from this, the Foundation will provide advice and training to Bayer employees and retirees who want to participate in local social initiatives or international development aid projects, and help them make the necessary arrangements. It will also subsidize international social projects and help provide speedy and effective relief for people in acute need following natural disasters, for example. Bayer AG will provide the Foundation with additional funds for this purpose in certain cases.

“The new Bayer Cares Foundation thus complements Bayer’s social commitment and underlines our mission to be a good corporate citizen,” comments Dr. Richard Pott, Bayer Management Board member responsible for strategy and human resources and Chairman of the Foundation’s Executive Committee.

Chairman of the Board of Trustees is Prof. Dr. André Habisch, Professor of Christian Social Ethics and Social Policy at the Catholic University of Eichstätt. “As part of civil society, companies can benefit the community through their social commitment,” said Habisch. “In this way they build the trust that is essential for their long-term success. The result is a win-win situation for both sides.”

In the future, disabled sports in Germany will continue to receive support from the Herbert Grünewald Foundation. Bayer is among the biggest promoters of disabled sports in Germany.

Further information about the foundations is available at www.bayer-foundations.com.