FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Bayer on Wednesday raised the prospect of a return to earnings growth next year after reiterating that a decline was expected for this year.

In a statement, the German maker of drugs and farming pesticides said 2025 would be "the most difficult in terms of financial performance, with net sales roughly in line with and earnings and free cash flow behind the prior year".

"The company expects improved performance from 2026 onwards," it added.

For the fourth quarter of last year, Bayer reported that earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), adjusted for one-off items, fell 22% to 2.35 billion euros ($2.50 billion), beating average expectations by analysts of 2.27 billion posted on the group's website.

CEO Bill Anderson is facing increasing investor pressure to deliver on turnaround efforts and reverse the earnings decline.

He is in the middle of cutting managerial jobs, speeding up decision-making and slashing red tape, and has put on hold plans to break up Bayer's diversified businesses.

($1 = 0.9409 euros)