BASF Sells Another Business!

Recently, major chemical companies have been making bold moves: Evonik is restructuring; Covestro has effectively sold itself; Honeywell is spinning off businesses—and now BASF is selling yet another business! On December 23, BASF announced on its official website that it had signed a binding agreement to sell its Food & Health Functional Ingredients business—including its production site in Iserlohn, Germany—to Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC), a global leader in agricultural commodity trading and processing. Upon completion of the transaction, approximately 300 employees are expected to transfer from BASF to LDC. The deal is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. BASF’s Food & Health Functional Ingredients business includes whipping and foaming agents, food emulsifiers and fat powders; health ingredients such as plant sterol esters, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), omega-3 oils for human nutrition, and several smaller product lines. Regarding the divestiture, BASF stated that this portfolio offers limited synergies and integration potential with the company’s core operations and no longer represents a strategic priority. BASF will instead sharpen its focus on core businesses within nutrition and health—expanding its presence in key areas such as vitamins, carotenoids, and feed enzymes. Just last month, on November 1, BASF formally completed the spin-off of its mining flocculants business, transferring related assets and brands—including well-known product lines Magnafloc®, Rheomax®, and Alclar®—to Solenis. These products are widely used in solid–liquid separation and material handling across mining operations. Nevertheless, BASF will retain and further develop its core product lines—including solvent extraction reagents and flotation agents—and vigorously advance innovation in its LixTRA™ product line. Thus, throughout this year, BASF has successively divested multiple non-core businesses and shut down several manufacturing facilities, including: • May: Announced the sale of part of the Ludwigshafen integrated site’s operations; • June: Announced the sale of its bioenergy enzymes business; • June: Announced termination of project evaluation for the Weda Bay nickel-cobalt refining complex in Indonesia—a project involving nearly USD 2.6 billion (approx. RMB 18.9 billion) in investment; • July: Announced plans to cease production of glufosinate active ingredients at its Knapsack and Frankfurt plants in Germany by the end of 2024; glufosinate formulations at the Frankfurt plant will be phased out by 2025;

Goodbye, BASF Coatings! Why Is BASF So Urgently ‘Ditching Its Paint Division’?

These acquisitions laid the foundation for BASF Coatings and elevated it to one of the world’s top manufacturers of automotive OEM (original equipment manufacturer) coatings and refinish coatings. Building on this, in 1972, BASF consolidated its paint, coatings, fiber, and printing ink businesses—along with parts of its pigment operations—into a new entity named BASF Farben + Fasern AG (‘Farben’ meaning ‘colors’—referring here to coatings and pigments; ‘Fasern’ meaning ‘fibers’). This new company included wholly owned subsidiaries such as Glasurit, Herbol, Siegle, and Kast. However, BASF Coatings’ expansion did not stop there—it began pursuing entry into the U.S. market: In 1979, BASF acquired a 49% stake in Cook Paint and Varnish Co., a traditional U.S. paint manufacturer supplying coatings to all major American automakers, thereby entering the critical U.S. market. In 1985, BASF acquired the U.S.-based Inmont Group Companies, bringing the renowned R-M automotive refinish coatings business under its umbrella. Founded in 1919, Inmont had introduced the world’s first metallic paint (in 1931) and the first OEM waterborne coating (in 1970); today, R-M continues as BASF’s flagship automotive refinish brand. In 1986, BASF transferred its fiber business back to the parent company, while relocating the remaining businesses and headquarters—from Hamburg to Münster. This structural shift was reflected in the company’s new name: BASF Lacke + Farben AG—replacing ‘Fasern’ (fibers) with ‘Lacke’ (coatings). Eleven years later, to better align with its internationalization strategy, the company renamed itself BASF Coatings AG. In 1989, BASF acquired Pinturas Aurolín S.A., one of Mexico’s largest coating manufacturers. Aurolín produced automotive, packaging, and industrial coatings. Thereafter, BASF slowed its acquisition pace in the coatings sector—until 11 years later, when it acquired the global coil-coating business of Norway’s Norsk Hydro ASA. This acquisition significantly expanded BASF’s coil-coating footprint, propelling it into the world’s top tier in this segment. In the same year, BASF also acquired Morton Industrial Coatings—the industrial coatings division of Rohm and Haas Co. In 2002, BASF acquired the automotive coatings business of Australia’s Wattyl Ltd., including both refinish and OEM automotive coatings. In 2006, BASF acquired the construction chemicals business of Degussa (the predecessor of Evonik Industries), integrating RELIUS Coatings—Europe’s leading eco-friendly coatings manufacturer—into BASF Coatings. RELIUS comprised two business segments: industrial coatings—including protective coatings, marine coatings, general industrial coatings, and wind turbine coatings—and decorative coatings. In 2012, BASF divested RELIUS’ decorative coatings business but retained its industrial coatings operations, which were merged into BASF’s Industrial Coatings division in early 2013.

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