Germany's Bayer said Wednesday it was confident of "significantly" containing long-running legal woes related to a weedkiller by the end of next year, as it reported a narrower quarterly loss.

The drug and agricultural chemicals group booked a net loss in the July-September period of 963 million euros ($1.1 billion), down from 4.18 billion euros a year earlier.

The group's operating profit before special items, closely watched by investors, rose about 20 percent to 1.5 billion euros, beating estimates and sending Bayer's shares up 3.5 percent in Frankfurt.

Bayer has been hit with a flood of legal cases in the United States related to claims that the glyphosate-based Roundup weedkiller causes blood cancer.

Bayer says scientific studies and regulatory approvals show that the weedkiller i

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