BASF

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BASF SE

logo
legal form Societas Europaea
ISIN DE000BASF111
founding April 6, 1865 in Mannheim as the
Badische Anilin- & Soda-Fabrik
Seat Ludwigshafen am Rhein , Germany
GermanyGermany 
management
Number of employees 117,628
sales 59.3 billion euros (2019)
Branch Chemical industry ,
oil and gas
Website www.basf.com
As of December 31, 2019

The BASF SE , based in Ludwigshafen am Rhein is the after sales worldwide largest chemical company . The company's share is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and is part of the German DAX share index . BASF employs 117,628 people worldwide at over 390 production sites in more than 80 countries. In 2019, sales of 59.3 billion euros and EBIT of 4.1 billion euros were achieved.

Today the Group has its origin in 1865 in Mannheim ( right bank in the former Grand Duchy of Baden located) founded B adic A Ni'lin - & S oda - F abrik . Because there is no suitable site was available, the new plant was built in the same year in Ludwigshafen, which in the Kingdom of Bavaria belonging Palatinate was.

Business activity

In 2010, BASF generated 18% of its sales with chemicals. This area comprises inorganic chemicals ( Inorganics division ), petrochemical products ( Petrochemicals division ) and intermediates for the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries as well as for other areas of the BASF Group ( Intermediates division ).

16% of sales were generated with the production of plastics . Customers in the plastics sector include the packaging, construction, automotive and electrical industries.

Finishing products made up 19% of sales in 2010. The finishing chemicals are mainly used in the consumer goods and food industries. For example as vitamins , food additives and ingredients for pharmaceuticals and cosmetics .

The Functional Solutions division , which offers sector-specific and customer-specific system solutions for the automotive and construction industries, generated 15% of sales.

About 5% of sales in 2010 were made in the area of crop protection and nutrition (Agricultural Solutions) .

Around 18% of sales in 2010 were generated from gas and oil production . The remaining 9% of sales came from other.

Almost three fifths (35.156 billion euros) of sales were generated in Europe in 2010. In North America accounted for 13.246 billion euros, the Pacific Asia area 11.642 billion euros and South America , Africa and the Middle East is 3.829 billion euros at.

With a trading volume of 900,000 bottles in 2013, BASF is also one of the largest wine traders in Germany, see BASF's wine cellar .

history

Baden aniline and soda factory (1865–1925)

BASF Ludwigshafen plant in 1866
BASF plant in Ludwigshafen 1881
Main laboratory of BASF in Ludwigshafen 1887
BASF's indigo production around 1890

On April 6, 1865, Friedrich Engelhorn founded the Badische Anilin- und Sodafabrik in Mannheim-Jungbusch with the support of the Ladenburg bank and its owner family as a stock corporation with a share capital of 1.4 million  guilders . In addition to Engelhorn as chairman, August Clemm , Carl Clemm and Julius Giese received managerial posts. Since Engelhorn in Mannheim since 1848, the Badische Society for gas lighting was one he wanted to in the extraction of coal gas by coking occurring coal tar use to it tar dyes (also called aniline dyes) prepare for the textile industry.

Just one week after it was founded, the new company moved to the left bank of the Rhine in Ludwigshafen, which was then part of the Bavarian Rhine Palatinate, in the area of ​​what was then Hemshof , since the Bavarian King Maximilian II had been promoting the settlement of industrial companies since 1863 , so that the new factory with a subsidy of 1.5 million  guilders .

In the early days of the company's history, important chemists were Heinrich Caro , Heinrich von Brunck and Rudolf Knietsch as well as the founders mentioned above .

Initially, the company produced tar dyes and their preliminary products, but began manufacturing indigo- based textile dyes and within a few years, through expansion and acquisitions, achieved a leading position in the global market for dyes. One of the first products sold was aniline dyes based on aniline obtained from indigo . The production of the dyes indanthrene ( René Bohn ), alizarin , eosin , auramine , methylene blue and azo dyes soon followed . Research into the synthetic production of indigo dyes began in 1880, an enormous financial feat for the company. In 1897, after 17 years of research, the process known as Heumann synthesis was adopted into production for the first time .

In the 1880s the company set up offices in France, Russia and the USA. In 1900 the Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik Aktiengesellschaft presented itself at the world exhibition in Paris as the largest chemical factory in the world. At that time, 148 chemists, 75 engineers, 305 commercial officials and 6,207 workers were employed in the plant in Ludwigshafen. In 1901 the company was able to present another world first with the lightfast and washfast indanthrene inks, which were to replace indigo inks in dye works and printing plants in the following years.

In 1903, at the instigation of the Bayer board of directors Carl Duisberg , attempts were made to forge a chemical cartel between BASF, Bayer, Farbwerke Hoechst , Leopold Cassella & Co KG and Agfa . Together with Gustav von Brüning (General Director of Farbwerke Hoechst) he published a memorandum in which a merger of these companies was suggested. After Hoechst changed its strategy and entered into an interlinking of capital with Cassella, the three remaining companies, BASF, Bayer and Agfa, joined forces in 1904, while maintaining their entrepreneurial independence, to form the color industry interest group (also known as the Triple Alliance), in which a coordinated approach and cooperation in color production was decided.

In the period that followed, BASF began researching the ammonia synthesis, which is important for the armaments industry, with the development of the Haber-Bosch process (1908/1912, 1910; BASF filed a patent for this process after Fritz Haber had previously filed a defective patent on it withdrew) could be taken over into production with the assistance of Alwin Mittasch . In 1913 the first ammonia synthesis plant went into operation in Oppau . It achieved an annual production of 7,200 tons of ammonia (today the annual production there is 875,000 tons of ammonia). At the same time, the production of fertilizers was started. As a result, the Limburgerhof agricultural center was opened in 1914 , which marked the beginning of industrial agricultural chemistry in Germany.

During the First World War , BASF was integrated into the armaments industry. In addition to ammonia and saltpeter as starting materials for the production of explosives and gunpowder, preliminary products for the production of poison gas were also manufactured. 1916 BASF established with the ammonia plant Merseburg ( Leuna Werke ) a second ammonia synthesis plant and built the Oppauer production further out to the strong demand, mainly due to the unexpected war situation (by the trench warfare more explosives and gunpowder became widely than intended) meet.

In Haßmersheim am Neckar, the " Reichsschwefelwerk " was built for the production of sulfuric acid from 1916 for 51 million  marks . The plant was shut down again after the First World War due to the Treaty of Versailles .

Production in the paint sector almost came to a standstill as a result of the war (three quarters of the sales markets were abroad), so in 1916 the paint departments of the so-called Triple Alliance (BASF, Bayer and Agfa) joined forces with the Hoechst , Cassella , Kalle and Weiler ink works. ter-Meer merged with the continued independence of the other corporate divisions to form an expanded paint industry interest group in order to centrally control research, purchasing and sales. The profit was paid into a joint fund and distributed according to a participation key (for Hoechst, Bayer and BASF the quota was 24.82% each).

After the First World War, most of the BASF production facilities were dismantled by the Allies and the patents were confiscated. The monopoly on many of the dyes developed by BASF was lost. Even so, production quickly resumed in the early 1920s without regaining its market leadership. A corporate crisis followed.

BASF emergency money ("aniline dollars") November 1923

In July 1919, BASF took over the first collective agreement concluded in Germany in the chemical industry. It envisaged the reduction of working hours to eight hours a day and the creation of a works council, which was first elected at BASF in 1920 and sent representatives to the company's supervisory board from 1922.

In 1921, a strike of 2,000 workers by units of the Reichswehr and the security police was put down at the Leuna plant. On September 21, 1921, the Oppau nitrogen plant was destroyed in a catastrophic explosion , in which 565 people lost their lives and large parts of the adjacent residential areas were destroyed.

At the height of inflation in the Weimar Republic in 1923, BASF introduced its own means of payment for its employees, the so-called "aniline dollar". It was supposed to protect the employees from the consequences of the galloping currency devaluation and established itself for a short time as a substitute currency in the region around Ludwigshafen. In the same year, the chemist Matthias Pier successfully synthesized methanol for the first time at the Ludwigshafen plant , which was soon transferred to large-scale production.

IG Farben AG (1925–1952)

IG Farben building in Frankfurt today

Due to increasing economic difficulties and growing international competition, especially due to the supremacy of the American chemical company DuPont , the German chemical companies, which were already working closely together, began concrete merger negotiations in 1923.

On November 14, 1924, it was decided to found IG Farben AG . The Farbwerke Hoechst AG and the chemical factories Cassella and Kalle & Co. AG transferred their entire assets to BASF AG on November 21, 1925 . Bayer, Agfa, Griesheim Elektron and Weiler-ter-Meer also followed. As a result, on December 2, 1925, BASF changed its name to IG Farbenindustrie AG and moved its headquarters to Frankfurt am Main . The management board of the new company comprised 83 people, Carl Bosch took over the chairmanship and Carl Duisberg became chairman of the supervisory board. The share capital of I. G. Farben AG was 1.1 billion RM, the number of employees was around 80,000 in 1924, it was the largest chemical company of that time.

As a result, the company began in 1926 with the hydrogenation of coal (according to the Bergius-Pier process ) for the production of gasoline , mainly due to the prospering automotive industry . In 1930 the breakthrough came with rubber synthesis, the rubber " Buna ", which was one of the first synthetic rubbers , was produced. Since a lot of energy was required for these products, I. G. Farben increasingly relocated their production to the Central German lignite mining area and the Leuna and Buna works became the center of the company. In the 1930s the I. G. Farben Group was a world leader in nitrogen chemistry ( synthesis of ammonia using the Haber-Bosch process ), the production of urea and the complete fertilizer " Nitrophoska " introduced in 1927 . Ammonia synthesis also enables the synthesis of nitric acid , from which ammonium nitrate or picric acid for explosives can be made. In this way, there was no need to import saltpetre . Other important business areas were tar dyes and the production of polyethylene ("Lupolen") as well as man-made fibers : Paul Schlack developed the polyamide " Perlon " in 1938 to compete with the " Nylon " patented in 1935 by the US chemical company DuPont .

In 1930 the headquarters of I. G. Farben moved into the new IG-Farben building , which was built in Frankfurt from 1928 to 1930 based on a design by the architect Hans Poelzig . Until the 1950s, the building, which cost around 24 million Reichsmarks to build, was one of the most modern and largest in Europe.

In the early days, I. G. Farben - in contrast to many other large German companies of the time - was able to operate freely. Their shares were widely diversified and not owned by major German banks or a major shareholder. This changed after the National Socialists came to power in 1933, when I. G. Farben came increasingly under political influence and was converted into a state and war corporation.

In 1932, AEG and I. G. Farben decided to collaborate in the field of magnetic sound recording. The Ludwigshafen plant was supposed to develop the magnetic tape, AEG was responsible for the tape device. The first 50,000 meters of tape were delivered in 1934 and AEG presented its first tape recorder “ Magnetophon K1” in August 1935 at the 12th German Radio Exhibition in Berlin.

After 1935 by Kodak presented Kodachrome film presented in 1936 as the world's second manufacturer Agfa , which the division III ( photochemistry ) of I. G. colors represented, in 1936 its three-layer color film " Agfa Color New " before.

After the start of the war in 1939, I. G. produced colors for the war economy and supported the recruitment of forced and foreign labor and the exploitation of concentration camp prisoners. From 1942 the company operated a factory near the Polish city of Monowitz with an attached labor camp for the production of the synthetic rubber Buna , which was supposed to make the German armaments industry independent of imported natural rubber. The Buna / Monowitz camp was a sub-camp of the Auschwitz camp complex .

Search parties in 1948 after the tank car explosion

From 1941 the first production of magnetic tapes took place in the Agfa Filmfabrik Wolfen of I. G. Farben. In the fall of 1941 for which was in Auschwitz for the first time pesticides produced hydrogen cyanide preparation Zyklon B that of the tested homicidal, Degesch (German Society for Pest Control), where the I. G. Farben was involved with 42.5% (Remaining Shares: Degussa also with 42.5% and Th. Goldschmidt AG in Essen with 15%), and was originally intended to be used for disinfestation of clothes lice . In the period that followed, the poison gas was used in the gas chambers of Auschwitz for the mass murder of several million people, organized on an industrial scale; In Majdanek , Sachsenhausen , Ravensbrück , Stutthof , Mauthausen and Neuengamme , Zyklon B was used for the industrially organized mass murder of prisoners. The main reason for using Zyklon B for mass killing was the time saved thanks to the rapid action of hydrogen cyanide gas compared to other types of killing, for example carbon monoxide. In addition, a surprise effect could be achieved through the use in locked shower rooms, which nullified the danger of a mass panic in the open area.

On March 26, 1945, Allied troops occupied the plant in Ludwigshafen, which had already been largely destroyed by bombing. After 1945 the four occupying powers confiscated all of the group's assets. In the Soviet zone of occupation , the plants (especially Leuna and Buna) were dismantled for reparations or nationalized. In November 1945 the Allied Control Council ordered the control and dissolution of I. G. Farben. Due to the good business relationships of the group, especially with the American Exxon and the chemical company DuPont, with which there had been a cross-link since the early 1930s, the complete break-up of I. G. Farben in the western occupation zones was not consistently pursued. In 1947/48 23 senior representatives of I. G. Farben were indicted in the so-called IG Farben trial before an American military tribunal , 13 of them were sentenced to prison terms.

On July 28, 1948, there was a devastating tank car explosion in the Ludwigshafen plant , in which 207 people lost their lives and several were injured.

In 1950 the Allies decreed the unbundling of I. G. Farben in the western zones. On January 30, 1952, the following eleven companies emerged: Agfa, BASF, Cassella GmbH, Chemische Werke Hüls  AG, Bayer AG, Hoechst AG, Duisburger Kupferhütte AG, Kalle & Co. AG, Dynamit AG , Wasag Chemie AG and Mainkur AG. On January 1, 1952, IG Farben AG went into liquidation and was called IG Farbenindustrie AG i. L. , only she is the legal successor of I. G. Farben.

Badische Anilin- & Soda-Fabrik Aktiengesellschaft (1952–1973)

BASF magnetic tape 1970–1980
Repair kit and spare parts for compact cassettes
88 mx 3.81 mm tape - BASF 60 min. Compact Cassette with SM

In the post-war years, production in the Ludwigshafen plant slowly resumed under French control. 1952 - after the re-establishment as Badische Anilin- & Soda-Fabrik Aktiengesellschaft in January with a nominal capital of 100,000 Deutsche Mark - it was still open until the mid-1950s whether the German alternatives to petrochemicals, for example the Reppe process from BASF Carbide and acetylene , would remain competitive. But there was already a trend towards the manufacture of plastic products. Already in 1951 was at the Ludwigshafen site, the polystyrene (foam polystyrene ), which often is used as insulation material in construction and in packaging technology using developed. In addition, BASF produced PA 6 Perlon (developed by I. G. Farben) or nylon (PA 6.6 developed by DuPont in 1935), polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride . In 1952, BASF signed an agreement with Shell to build the Rheinische Olefinwerke (ROW, later merged to form Basell ) in Wesseling , which began production in 1955.

In the 1950s and 1960s, BASF began to systematically set up production facilities abroad. Plants were built in other European countries (especially in France , Belgium , Great Britain and Spain ), America (especially in the United States , but also in Mexico , Argentina and Brazil ) as well as in Japan and Australia . One focus was the production site in Antwerp in Belgium, which became the company's second largest European site. In Texas , USA, the Dow Badische Chemical Company was founded as a joint venture with Dow Chemical .

In an accident in 1953, 55 people were exposed to the toxin 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzodioxin in a production facility at the Ludwigshafen plant . They fell ill with chloracne and were sometimes seriously injured. Production in this part of the factory was initially resumed, but stopped after a dioxin-related death and the production facility was closed. In 1968 the building was torn down under great security precautions.

From 1954 to 1957, the Friedrich Engelhorn high-rise , BASF’s new administrative headquarters, was built on the site of the Ludwigshafen plant and at that time it was the first high-rise and tallest building in Germany. Although it was listed as an industrial monument, BASF was able to demolish the high-rise due to structural damage and asbestos problems and had it torn down in 2014. Since blasting was out of the question because of a possible risk to the nearby chemical production facilities, it was demolished floor by floor and was to be replaced by a new construction from 2016.

From the mid-1960s, the company endeavored to expand its production range to include consumer-oriented and highly refined products. For this purpose, Glasurit -Werke M. Winkelmann AG, one of the largest companies in the European coatings industry, was taken over in 1965 . The coatings division (today BASF Coatings AG ) was founded in 1967 by Dr. Beck & Co. AG , specialist for insulating varnishes and insulation materials for the electrical industry, and in 1968 it was supplemented by a majority stake in Herbol-Werke Herbig Haarhaus AG .

Another area close to end consumers was opened up in 1966 with the opening of the magnetic tape factory in Willstätt near Kehl , which produced audio and video cassettes, storage media for IT and printing plates for the graphics industry.

In 1965, the group achieved sales of DM 4.05 billion and employed 56,000 people.

In addition, BASF began to set up its own pharmaceutical division. Before that, the company was only active as a supplier of preliminary products for the pharmaceutical industry. In 1968 she acquired Nordmark-Werke GmbH in Hamburg (the company founded in 1927 produces drugs against disorders of the central nervous system, changes in the blood, heart and circulatory system and infectious diseases).

In 1969, BASF took over Wintershall AG from Kassel (1965 sales: 1.24 billion DM), thus securing its domestic raw material supply. In 1970 the production facilities of Wintershall AG with Salzdetfurth AG and Burbach-Kaliwerke AG were incorporated into the newly founded Kali und Salz GmbH in Kassel, in which BASF from then on held the majority of the shares. In addition, to strengthen its US business, it acquired Wyandotte Chemicals Corporation from Wyandotte, Michigan (USA), a major manufacturer of the basic chemical products ethylene and propylene oxide as well as polyurethane . In 1970, together with Degussa, the joint venture Ultraform GmbH started producing acetal copolymers .

BASF Aktiengesellschaft (1973–2001)

Friedrich Engelhorn high-rise
View of the plant from the north
Plant (possibly BASF) for styrene production, which has since been shut down - 120 Pf postage stamp of the definitive series Industry and Technology of the Deutsche Bundespost Berlin (October 15, 1975)

In 1972 the company, previously trading under the name Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik Aktiengesellschaft , was also officially entered in the commercial register under the common abbreviation BASF Aktiengesellschaft .

To strengthen the pharmaceutical sector, the company took over the majority of Knoll AG in Ludwigshafen in 1975 . In 1982 Knoll AG became a 100% subsidiary. During the 1970s, through the joint venture Rheinischen Olefinwerke GmbH in Wesseling, there was extensive cooperation with Shell in the production of the plastic polypropylene . In 1977 the world's largest plant for the production of acrylic acid , an important precursor for adhesives production, went into operation at the Ludwigshafen plant . This made BASF the market leader in this field. The Dow Badische Chemical Company was 100% taken over in 1978.

To further diversify, the BASF fragrance range was developed in 1982 . In Ludwigshafen, citronellal , citronellol and hydroxycitronellal , which serve as the basis for soaps and detergents , have now been produced using their own process . In the same year, BASF took over from the Danish company Grindsted the vitamin productions to strengthening the pharmaceutical sector.

From 1975, BASF entered another new business segment: under its own brand name, mini computers (line 7100) and mainframes and associated peripheral devices , mainly from the manufacturer Hitachi (but also others such as magnetic tape drives from STC), which were part of the System / 370 des Market leader IBM were compatible . As early as 1988, after a change of strategy, BASF brought these activities into the Comparex joint venture and later left this holding company entirely.

The area pesticides (now BASF Crop Protection ) brought in 1983 the grass herbicide Poast on the market, primarily in soybeans and cotton is used. In 1984, BASF became active in Eastern Europe for the first time through its subsidiary Elastogran GmbH . Together with Hungarian partners, she founded Kemipur GmbH , which produces polyurethane components.

In 1985 the North American business was doubled with the acquisition of the fiber composite production of Celanese (American Enka) . BASF's fiber activities have now been concentrated entirely on the North American continent. After the acquisition of the American paint manufacturer Inmont Corporation , the entire American business was restructured and all sub-areas were combined in the new group company, BASF Corporation .

In 1989 the environmental center of the Ludwigshafen plant was put into operation, with it the emission values ​​of the plant are checked and the cooling water drains into the Rhine are monitored.

In the 1990s, under the Chairman of the Board of Management Jürgen Strube, BASF was increasingly internationalized and the Group's activities were concentrated on the core business areas of chemicals, plastics, processing products, crop protection and nutrition, and oil and gas. A first step was the start of trading in BASF shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on November 27, 1990.

Also in 1990 the magnetic tape activities of the Agfa -Gevaert Group were taken over and the business with magnetic products reorganized. Production and sales of tapes, cassettes and disks were brought into the new subsidiary BASF Magnetics GmbH . In addition, BASF took over the Schwarzheide AG synthesis plant in Niederlausitz from the Treuhandanstalt . It was run as a new BASF subsidiary under the name BASF Schwarzheide GmbH . It mainly manufactures basic polyurethane products and was expanded considerably in the following years.

The subsidiary Wintershall Holding AG began a cooperation with the Soviet Gazprom group . This led to the construction of a new natural gas infrastructure ( Central Germany Connection Line ( MIDAL ), Saxony-Thuringia Natural Gas Line ( STEGAL ) and the Rehden natural gas storage facility ) for a total of DM 4 billion. The joint sales of natural gas is handled by Wingas GmbH, based in Kassel which were initially 65% ​​owned by Wintershall and 35% owned by Gazprom.

At its Antwerp site in 1994, BASF commissioned what was then the world's largest steam cracker , which cost 1.3 billion DM to build. In 1996 the expansion to East Asia continued. Together with the Malay state-owned company Petronas , one of the world's largest plants for the production of acrylic monomers was inaugurated. In the Crop Protection research area , the powdery mildew fungicide Brio made the breakthrough to a completely new class of fungicidal active ingredients, the strobilurins .

EMTEC logo

In 1997, BASF and Hoechst merged their polypropylene business in the joint venture Targor . In addition, BASF Magnetics GmbH was sold to the Korean group of companies KOHAP Inc. , which continued production of data carriers under the name Emtec Magnetics . Together with Shell, BASF founded Elenac as a joint venture for polyethylene production. A year later, the world's largest steam cracker went into operation at the Port Arthur plant.

In 1999, BASF and Shell decided to merge Elenac , Targor and Montell in an equal joint venture . This new company, which mainly polyolefins produced, was named Basell N. V . and is based in Hoofddorp in the Netherlands . In May 2005, Basell N.V. was sold to the American holding company Access Industries Inc. for 4.4 billion euros .

In February 1999, BASF paid DM 110 million as compensation for involvement in the crimes of the Third Reich in the fund of the German Business Foundation's initiative, half of which financed the “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” foundation.

In 2000, BASF took over the crop protection business of American Home Products Corporation for $ 3.8 billion, doubling sales in the crop protection division, which was boosted in 2003 by taking over part of Bayer's crop protection production for 1.2 billion euros . The food chemistry division was created through the acquisition of the vitamin business of Takeda Chemical Industries Ltd. expanded from Japan. This made BASF the second largest vitamin manufacturer in the world. Also in 2000, BASF merged its textile dye activities with those of DyStar , a joint venture between Bayer and Hoechst (Hoechst and Bayer each held 35%, BASF 30%).

BASF Aktiengesellschaft (2001–2007)

In March 2001, as part of the focus on its core activities, BASF sold its pharmaceutical business to Abbott Laboratories Inc. from Illinois / USA. In the following year, the Antwerp site was expanded to include the world's largest production facility for superabsorbents . In doing so, BASF strengthened its position as the world market leader in acrylic acid and superabsorbents. Until 2003, BASF gradually reduced its stake in K + S AG (formerly Kali und Salz GmbH) to 10%.

In 2004, the Chairman of the Board of Management Jürgen Hambrecht issued the BASF 2015 strategic plan . With it, the global market presence was refreshed and standardized with a slightly changed logo and the motto BASF - The Chemical Company . The stake in the Dystar joint venture was sold to the American investor Platinum Equity .

In September 2005, the Nanjing site , which was built for 2.9 billion euros, started production. Mainly styrene, polystyrene, ethylene and propylene are produced here. The new location is the third largest BASF plant after Ludwigshafen and Antwerp.

In March 2006, BASF took over the construction chemicals activities of Degussa AG for 2.7 billion euros. The acquisition was completed on July 1st and comprises production sites and sales centers in over 50 countries as well as a research and development center in Trostberg / Germany. Around 7,400 employees were taken over by Degussa. Degussa Construction Chemicals' turnover in 2005 was almost two billion euros.

At the beginning of the year, BASF had already started a takeover offer to the American Engelhard Corporation, which was perceived as hostile . After the initial offering was increased from $ 37 to $ 39 per share, Engelhard Corp.'s board of directors voted to vote. after initial massive opposition to the takeover, which cost BASF $ 4.8 billion (€ 3.8 billion). The acquisition of Engelhard Corp. represents the largest takeover in the company's history to date. The acquisition in the catalyst market comprises 50 production sites and 22 research and development centers in over 20 countries. Around 7,300 Engelhard employees came to the BASF Group. Engelhard had 2005 sales of $ 4.6 billion.

On July 1, 2006, BASF announced the acquisition of US resin specialist Johnson Polymer for $ 470 million (€ 379 million). The acquisition added the water-based technology to BASF's portfolio of high-solids and UV resins for the coatings and paint industry. With the purchase, BASF wanted to improve its market position in North America . The US company's operations are to be integrated into BASF's performance chemicals division.

In October 2007 , a superabsorbent plant went into operation in Freeport (Texas) , the capacity of which initially exceeded that of the Antwerp plant by 50%; however, production in Belgium was later expanded to the same amount as in Freeport. US BASF operations in Aberdeen, Mississippi and Portsmouth, Virginia were closed as a result.

BASF SE (since 2008)

BASF booth at the K 2019 plastics fair in Düsseldorf

On April 26, 2007, the Annual General Meeting of BASF Aktiengesellschaft resolved to convert the legal form into a European company. The registration of the Societas Europaea in the commercial register by the name BASF SE took place on 14 January 2008. Company headquarters and main administrative offices will remain in Ludwigshafen am Rhein be.

In November 2008, BASF took over the Swiss specialty chemicals company Ciba AG , in April 2009 the takeover was completed and Ciba was integrated into the BASF Group. Ciba AG initially continued to appear in the market under its own name, before being renamed BASF Schweiz AG in March 2010 .

In June 2010, BASF bought the former competitor Cognis for 3.1 billion euros. On August 2, the same year that were bearer shares into registered shares exchanged.

On June 17, 2016, it was announced that BASF is buying specialty chemicals company Chemetall GmbH for $ 3.2 billion. The transaction was completed in December 2016.

On October 17, 2016, during work on a pipeline route in Ludwigshafen's Nordhafen , through which the entire supply of the Ludwigshafen BASF plant with flammable liquefied gases , a fire and several explosions occurred . Four people died in the process; seven others were seriously injured and 22 were slightly injured. Part of the chemical plants was shut down temporarily. In September 2017, another employee of the plant fire brigade died as a result of his injuries.

In October 2017, the acquisition of parts of the seeds and crop protection business of Bayer AG (including the Liberty Link seeds) for a price of 5.9 billion euros was announced. The transaction occurred in connection with Bayer's takeover of Monsanto . In April 2018, the agreement was supplemented by additional company parts, so that the total price when the transaction was concluded in August 2018 was 7.6 billion euros and included company parts with 4,500 employees.

On September 27, 2018, a binding agreement for the merger of DEA with Wintershall was announced. BASF initially holds 67% and LetterOne 33% of the shares in the new Wintershall Dea ; including additional preferential shares, BASF's total stake is 72.7%. Wintershall Dea is aiming for an IPO in the second half of 2020 . Template: future / in 5 years

In December 2019, BASF agreed to sell the construction chemicals business acquired from Degussa in 2006 to the US financial investor Lone Star . The agreed purchase price was 3.17 billion euros. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2020 after approval by the antitrust authorities.Template: future / in 5 years

Group overview

Group structure

Since the beginning of 2019, BASF has been divided into six segments with a total of twelve corporate divisions. They have entrepreneurial responsibility for their area and are regionally and globally responsible for managing corporate activities. 54 global and regional business units are responsible for sales, depending on the industry or product. The BASF Group has a total of over 400 companies, including more than 160 subsidiaries and joint ventures internally designated as A companies, which make up the core of the scope of consolidation.

The main business areas and their products

Chemicals
With the Inorganics, Petrochemicals and Intermediates divisions. The product range includes: basic petrochemical products (such as propylene and ethylene ), plasticizers , electronic chemicals , glues , resins , amines , diols, primary products for paints, fibers and fine chemicals .
Plastics
With the Performance Polymers and Polyurethanes divisions. Key business areas of the former styrenics division were spun off on January 1, 2011. BASF and INEOS Industries Holdings Limited , Lyndhurst, Great Britain, have their worldwide business activities in the areas of styrene monomers (SM), polystyrene (PS), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), styrene butadiene copolymers (SBC) and other styrene-based copolymers (SAN, AMSAN , ASA, MABS) and copolymer blends have been brought together in a joint venture called Styrolution . The products are polystyrene , expanded polystyrene , PVC and synthetic fibers made by the BASF Corporation . The business field was dissolved as an independent segment with effect from January 2013 and divided between the Chemicals and Functional Solutions segments. BASF has been cooperating with the Mexican company Essentium since May 2017 . The aim of this cooperation is the production of high-performance plastics for industrial FDM 3D printing .
Finishing products
With the Dispersions & Pigments divisions ( pigments , resins and auxiliary chemicals for the coatings industry, polymers for adhesives and the construction industry), Care Chemicals (products for cleaning, care and hygiene, animal and human nutrition and pharmaceuticals), Paper Chemicals ( Binders, process chemicals, kaolin pigments) and performance chemicals (chemicals for the production and finishing of leather and textiles, oil field chemicals and fuel additives for the refinery and automotive industries).
Functional Solutions
With the Catalysts, Construction Chemicals and Coatings divisions. They develop industry and customer-specific products and system solutions, especially for the automotive and construction industries (tile adhesives, sealing and insulation systems, sports and industrial floors, vehicle and industrial paints, construction paints).
Phytosanitary and nutrition
With the crop protection and nutrition divisions. Products: herbicides , insecticides and fungicides , as well as vitamins , acids and pigments. From the late 1990s, BASF began with the founding of the research platform BASF Plant Science in Business Line biotechnology / genetic engineering to engage. The company quickly acquired expertise by buying up companies such as Metanomics in Berlin, SunGene in Gatersleben , Crop Design in Gent and DNA LandMarks in Quebec . The collaborations with biotechnology companies such as Bayer CropScience and Monsanto are of outstanding importance . Worldwide, BASF maintains 1,900 partnerships with universities and research institutes (around two thirds) as well as start-ups and industrial partners (around one third) in research and development, mainly in the field of biotechnology. Due to a lack of acceptance, BASF increasingly withdrew from the European market at the beginning of 2012.
oil and gas
About Wintershall Holding AG and its holdings. Exploration, production and transportation, storage and trading in natural gas and oil.

Important holdings

(Percentages indicate the share that BASF owns in these companies)

Important locations

View of the Ludwigshafen plant from Mannheim (Friesenheimer Insel)
BASF factory premises in Ludwigshafen am Rhein
View of the BASF Ludwigshafen plant

Corporate governance

Board Supervisory board

Stock exchange & shareholder structure

The company's share is listed in the DAX and DivDAX on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and is also traded on the London and Zurich stock exchanges.

Share from 1955
1996 share

Over 500,000 investors worldwide are involved in BASF.

proportion of Shareholders
28% Private investors from Germany
17% Rest of Europe
21% USA, Canada
12% institutional investors from Germany
12% United Kingdom, Ireland
6% not identified
4% Rest of the world

Status: March 2018

The free float as defined by Deutsche Börse is 100 percent. The largest single shareholders reported are the US investment company BlackRock with 6.61 percent and Norges Bank (Central Bank of Norway) with 2.98 percent.

Dividend policy

BASF has been paying annual dividends without interruption since 1953. BASF states that it wants to increase the dividend annually, or at least keep it at the previous year's level. In the past ten years, the dividend has been increased nine times and decreased once. Due to the consistently above-average dividend yield over the years, BASF is one of only two companies that has been represented in the DivDAX without interruption since it was founded .

BASF logo since October 1, 2017
BASF logo from 1873
Older BASF logo, used for BASF Magnetics products

BASF's first company logo was created in 1873 after the merger with two Stuttgart companies (Knosp and Siegle). The coats of arms of Stuttgart (horse) and Ludwigshafen (Bavarian lion with anchor) could be seen on it. In 1922 the company introduced an additional, round logo for the export markets, which was called the "BASF egg". After BASF was re-established in 1952, the original logo from 1873 was used, with a crown bearing the company name. As early as 1953, a new company emblem was created, which consisted of four narrow hollow block letters. Both logos existed side by side until the 1960s, until the so-called “BASF Briquette” was designed in 1968, the BASF lettering with reversed colors (white writing on a black background). In 1986 the company logo was modernized and made applicable for photo typesetting. The “BASF” lettering was developed from the Neue Helvetica font and can therefore still be found in the current logo.

The BASF logo in its current form is based on the lettering designed by the company's own advertising department in 1986. In 2003 it was supplemented by Interbrand Zintzmeyer & Lux with two complementary squares and the addition "The Chemical Company". Since March 2004, this logo, with one of the six corporate colors blue, light blue, green, light green, orange and red in the background, has formed the core of the corporate design .

On January 1, 2015, and thus on the 150th anniversary, BASF introduced the new objective “We create chemistry” in its logo, which replaces the previous motto “The Chemical Company”. The last graphic adjustment took place on October 1, 2017, the squares have been in full tone since then.

Product portfolio and research

The chemical, automotive and energy industries, agriculture and the construction industry are among the major customer sectors for BASF products. Important customers are in the health, nutrition, electrical / electronics, textiles, packaging and paper industries. BASF is the market and technology leader in many areas . It has rights to 110,000 patents worldwide, more than any other company, and in 2010 it applied for around 1,100 new patents. In 2010, almost 1.5 billion euros were invested in research; around 9,600 people are employed in the company's own research facilities worldwide. With 26% of research expenditure, the area of ​​crop protection and nutrition is the group's most research-intensive area.

The group is outsourcing part of the research work by financing start-ups through the BASF venture capital company.

Sales by industry (2011) Share of annual sales
Chemistry (no end-user industry), energy > 15%
Transportation, consumer goods 10-15%
Agriculture, construction 5-10%
Electrical / Electronics, Health and Nutrition <5%

Selected group products

BASF's social policy

Hemshof colony 1880

Parallel to the economic rise in the 19th century, the plant management began with a patriarchal social policy. This included in-house health care, training and further education, housing construction and leisure activities. The company's own health care began in 1866 with the establishment of an in-house outpatient clinic, the first company doctor of which, Carl Knaps, was also the medical officer of the Ludwigshafen district. A company health insurance was set up in 1875, and rest homes were set up for workers and their families, for example in Dannenfels .

Housing construction began as early as 1866 with the construction of a dormitory for single workers. In 1873 the Hemshof colony was laid out around the Ludwigshafen factory site, on which 384 workers 'and 36 supervisors' apartments were built at the time. In 1900 the Limburgerhof colony was built, which included an elementary school and a prayer room (later the Group's agricultural center was built there). In addition, a central factory kitchen was set up in 1884 to supply the workers, and a dining hall was added in 1890. A gymnasium was added in 1890 and a library in 1901. In 1900 a casino and the society house were opened, which was expanded in 1913.

In November 2013, the company also opened "LuMit" - the employee center for work-life management at the Ludwigshafen site. Under this roof are "LuFit" - a fitness and health studio, "LuCare" - the social and life counseling service of the BASF Foundation, and "LuKids" - the largest company day-care center in Germany with 267 children.

Environmental and consumer protection

The company issues the following principles as guidelines for environmental protection:

  • Promotion of safety, health and environmental awareness and continuous improvements through target agreements
  • Create products that are safe to manufacture, use, recycle or dispose of
  • Supporting customers and suppliers in their endeavors to handle goods in a safe and environmentally friendly manner
  • Reduction of the impact on people and the environment during the manufacture, storage, transport, distribution, use and disposal of BASF products

From the mid-1950s onwards, the company said it made efforts to "actively protect the environment" in its plants. In 1957, the first systematic planning began in collaboration with the University of Stuttgart to improve environmental standards in BASF's plants. In 1964 the residue incineration plant was equipped with its first rotary kiln, and in 1974 the 500 million DM wastewater treatment plant in Ludwigshafen went into operation. In 1988 a flue gas desulphurization system was completed in the coal-fired power plant at the Ludwigshafen site. A year later, BASF opened a new environmental center, and in 1991 the BASF ecological laboratory started its work. In 2005, a second gas and steam turbine power plant went into operation ( BASF-Ludwigshafen power plant ), which achieved an energy efficiency of almost 90%. Including the output of the other combined cycle plant, the proportion of total electricity generated at the Ludwigshafen site increased to over 90% by the new power plant.

EU chemicals regulation

According to research by the television magazine Monitor , a BASF employee, a so-called “external employee” or “temporary worker”, was involved in the implementation of the EU chemicals directive REACH from 2004 to 2005 . At that time the European Union was planning a new chemical regulation, abbreviated REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals). According to the REACH regulation, which has already come into force, the chemical industry must examine all chemical substances marketed in Europe, some of which have so far only been insufficiently tested for their hazard. According to Monitor, “the chemical industry is interested in: fewer test procedures, for example for children's toys or clothing, in order to save costs. In this way, the lobby prevailed against consumer interests. ”(See also: External employees in German federal ministries )

BASF was heavily criticized by environmental organizations for its negative stance on the planned new EU chemicals regulation REACH. The regulation has been in force since June 1, 2007. Around 2,500 substances should be registered by 2018. In addition, BASF is introducing standards around the world that are based on the rules of REACH.

Important personalities for the company's history

Awards

In 2005, the American business magazine Forbes named BASF the most respected chemical company in the world. In January 2007, the business newspaper Manager Magazin recognized BASF for its social responsibility with first place in the Good Company Ranking . In the years 2009 to 2011 and 2014, BASF was named the most respected chemical company in the world by the US business magazine "Fortune". In 2010 the company was included in the lexicon of German world market leaders.

Subsidization

In 2009, BASF received almost 200,000 euros from EU agricultural subsidies , and in 2013 an amount of 131,557 euros for the “Rehhütte” estate, which is attached to its agricultural center.

Like every other large corporation, BASF receives the highest government subsidies from research and development projects of the BMBF, BMU and BMWi. There, mostly up to four years of collaboration between state research institutions and private industry are funded with funding amounts of up to double-digit million amounts per individual project. The point is to relieve the national industry financially in its fight against foreign competitors by largely assuming the development costs by state research institutions. The results of such a research consortium are usually freely available to the (participating) industrial partners or are jointly patented. Alternatively, they receive the exclusive right of exploitation for a license fee to the research institution, which efficiently minimizes their own development costs.

criticism

At the annual general meeting of BASF in April 2008, the managing director of the umbrella association of critical shareholders criticized the group for its climate policy and its lobbying .

At the end of October 2010, the group came under fire because, together with Bayer AG and E.ON , it sponsored US politicians who deny climate change or block laws against it with a donation of 175,000 US dollars. Above all, it was criticized that these companies rejected climate protection targets in Europe on the grounds that the USA was inactive in this area.

Johannes Seoka, Anglican Bishop of Pretoria, asked BASF at the Annual General Meeting in April 2015 to participate in reparation payments in the aftermath of the Marikana massacre . BASF was the main customer of Lonmin's platinum mine , where 34 miners were shot dead by South African police on August 16, 2012. In the final report of the Farlam Commission's taking of evidence, Lonmin, among others, is criticized for some decisions. Seoka urged BASF to take responsibility for the grievances in its supply chain .

BASF has patented many natural genetic resources over the years, for example almost 50% of all genes found and patented in oceans . This makes it more difficult for others to use and often research. The patenting of genes is therefore controversial worldwide.

Active ingredients for crop protection products manufactured by BASF , which are no longer approved in the EU, were sold on the Brazilian market in 2017. These include, for example, cyanamid and quinclorac .

literature

  • Jürgen Nürnberger: BASF AG Ludwigshafen am Rhein. A company bibliography. 1865-1990 . 2nd edition (as of October 1, 1991), Nürnberger, Ludwigshafen am Rhein 1991. / Volume 2: Supplements. 1991, ISBN 3-929153-02-5 .
  • Werner Abelshauser (ed.): BASF from 1865 to the present. History of a company . 2nd edition, Verlag CH Beck , Munich 2003, ISBN 3-406-49526-5 .

Web links

Commons : BASF  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
File category Files: BASF  - local collection of images and media files
Wiktionary: BASF  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d BASF SE: BASF Report 2019. Accessed February 28, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Internet presence BASF: Chemicals  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.basf.com  
  3. ↑ Internet presence BASF: Plastics  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.basf.com  
  4. ↑ BASF website: Performance Products  ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.basf.com  
  5. ↑ BASF achieves another leap in profit thanks to basic chemicals. In: welt.de. October 24, 2017. Retrieved April 23, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Internet presence of BASF: Functional Solutions  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.basf.com  
  7. ↑ BASF website: Agricultural Solutions  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.basf.com  
  8. ↑ Internet presence BASF: Öl und Gas  ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.basf.com  
  9. ↑ BASF Annual Report 2010 - online version
  10. ↑ The company has 800 wines: BASF is the top-selling wine retailer in Germany. In: Focus Online . May 27, 2014, accessed August 18, 2015 .
  11. ↑ Ber. dt. Chem. Ges. 23 , 3043 (1890) ( digitized on Gallica )
  12. ^ By taking over the St Fons plant from Teinturerie sur soie Guinon, Marnas et Bonnet, from Neuville-sur-Saone in 1878.
  13. ↑ Bernd Freytag: Dollars from the chemical plant. In: FAZ.net . January 3, 2012, accessed August 18, 2015 .
  14. ↑ First day sheet 21/1975.
  15. ↑ Presentation IBM (PDF file; 6.25 MB).
  16. ↑ Wirtschaftswoche: Chemicals concern: Billion dollar construction chemicals business from BASF could go to Lone Star. In: www.wiwo.de. November 27, 2019, accessed January 1, 2020 .
  17. ↑ BASF buys US company for half a billion. In: handelsblatt.com. May 2, 2006, accessed April 23, 2019 .
  18. ^ BASF: Acquisition of Johnson Polymer completed. In: plasticker.de. July 5, 2006, accessed April 23, 2019 .
  19. ↑ BASF completes transformation into European Company , Dow Jones: January 14, 2008.
  20. ↑ Annual Report 2008 February 5, 2009. Accessed August 12, 2012.
  21. ↑ BASF Report 2009: Integration of Ciba.Retrieved August 12, 2012.
  22. ↑ Welcome to Ciba ( Memento of March 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  23. ↑ A brand disappears: Ciba is now called BASF Schweiz AG Basler Zeitung, March 1, 2010.
  24. ↑ BASF wants to take over the global supplier of surface technology Chemetall. In: BASF. Retrieved June 17, 2016 .
  25. ↑ BASF. chemetall.com, accessed February 7, 2020 .
  26. ^ Injured and missing persons in Ludwigshafen: dead after fire at BASF. In: hr1.de. October 20, 2016, archived from the original on October 18, 2016 ; accessed on October 17, 2016 .
  27. ↑ No danger to the population from pollutants , Zeit Online, October 21, 2016.
  28. ^ Explosion in Ludwigshafen: BASF starts production , Stuttgarter Nachrichten, October 20, 2016.
  29. ↑ Eleven months later: Another death after the BASF explosion accident. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . September 5, 2017. Retrieved September 6, 2017 .
  30. ↑ BASF makes a billion-dollar deal with Bayer. In: Handelsblatt. October 13, 2017, accessed February 7, 2020 .
  31. ↑ BASF completes acquisition of businesses and assets from Bayer. basf.com, August 1, 2018, accessed February 7, 2020 .
  32. ↑ BASF reaches an agreement with Letter One - Wintershall and Dea merge. In: handelsblatt.com. September 28, 2018, accessed November 23, 2019 .
  33. ↑ BASF and LetterOne complete the merger of Wintershall and DEA. basf.com, May 1, 2019, accessed February 7, 2020 .
  34. ↑ As expected, BASF sells construction chemicals business to Lone Star. In: www.finanznachrichten.de. dpa-AFX, December 21, 2019, accessed on January 1, 2020 .
  35. ↑ a b BASF organizational structure. Retrieved February 20, 2019 .
  36. ^ BASF Business Services GmbH. Retrieved January 19, 2019 .
  37. ^ BASF in Ludwigshafen. Retrieved January 19, 2019 .
  38. ↑ a b Board of Directors. BASF, accessed May 13, 2017 .
  39. ↑ a b Supervisory Board. BASF, accessed May 13, 2017 .
  40. ↑ Shareholder structure , accessed on July 6, 2018
  41. ↑ Notification of voting rights from BASF, accessed on July 6, 2018
  42. ↑ BASF history in numbers. Retrieved January 13, 2019 .
  43. ↑ BASF in the dividend check: There could still be plenty of constancy and growth lurking here! FOCUS Online, accessed on January 19, 2019 .
  44. ↑ Dividend BASF share. Retrieved January 19, 2019 .
  45. ↑ Historical index composition DivDAX. Retrieved April 23, 2019 .
  46. ↑ BASF Venture Capital. (No longer available online.) In: basf.com. Archived from the original on February 16, 2017 ; accessed on February 12, 2017 .
  47. ↑ Torsten Paßmann: Interview with Dr. Paul-Josef Patt, eCAPITAL Entrepreneurial Partners, and Dirk Nachtigal, BASF Venture Capital. In: VC Magazin (via ecapital.de). July 2, 2010, accessed February 12, 2017 .
  48. ↑ BASF Factbook, August 2012 ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / digital-reader.eu
  49. ↑ Hydroxylamine (Free Base and Salts) ( Memento from January 22, 2015 in the web archive archive.today )
  50. ↑ LuMit - The employee center for work-life management. Retrieved March 16, 2019 .
  51. ↑ At a glance. Retrieved March 16, 2019 .
  52. ↑ Kim Otto, Sascha Adamek, Markus Schmidt: "Secret stakeholders: lobbyists in federal ministries " Monitor, April 3, 2008. Accessed on August 12, 2012.
  53. ↑ Thomas Barth: “And nobody calls it corruption” Telepolis , April 14, 2008, accessed on June 30, 2008.
  54. ↑ Good Company Ranking: Good Neighbors. Retrieved April 23, 2019 .
  55. ^ BASF most respected chemical company. In: chemanager-online.com. May 14, 2009, accessed April 23, 2019 .
  56. ↑ World's Most Admired Companies 2009: BASF snapshot - from FORTUNE. Retrieved April 23, 2019 .
  57. ↑ World's Most Admired Companies 2010: BASF snapshot - FORTUNE. Retrieved April 23, 2019 .
  58. ↑ World's Most Admired Companies 2011: BASF snapshot - FORTUNE. Retrieved April 23, 2019 .
  59. ↑ World's Most Admired Companies 2014 - Fortune. Retrieved April 23, 2019 .
  60. ↑ Florian Langenscheidt , Bernd Venohr (Hrsg.): Lexicon of German world market leaders. The premier class of German companies in words and pictures . German Standards Editions, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-86936-221-2 .
  61. ↑ Funding from Brussels: Tank manufacturer collects EU agricultural subsidies at spiegel.de, accessed on September 3, 2015
  62. ↑ Hundreds of thousands of euros for energy companies, genetic engineering companies and tank builders at sueddeutsche.de, accessed on September 3, 2015
  63. ↑ Markus Dufner: “Speech by Markus Dufner at the Annual General Meeting of BASF on April 24, 2008” , accessed on June 30, 2008 (PDF file; 65 kB).
  64. ^ German donations for US climate protection opponents . In: Stern.de of October 26, 2010, accessed on October 26, 2010.
  65. ↑ Johannes Seoka: Speech by Bishop Johannes Seoka at the Annual General Meeting of BASF on April 30, 2015 , accessed on May 13, 2015 (PDF file).
  66. ^ Final report of the heads of the taking of evidence
  67. ↑ Press review: Collection of press reports on the speech by Bishop Johannes Seoka at the Annual General Meeting of BASF on April 30, 2015 , accessed on May 12, 2015.
  68. ^ Blue Rush: One Company Leads the Race to Own Marine Genetic Sequences. Retrieved June 7, 2018 .
  69. ↑ Robert Blasiak, Jean-Baptiste Jouffray, Colette CC Wabnitz, Emma Sundström, Henrik Österblom: Corporate control and global governance of marine genetic resources . In: Science Advances . tape 4 , no. 6 , June 1, 2018, ISSN  2375-2548 , p. eaar5237 , doi : 10.1126 / sciadv.aar5237 ( sciencemag.org [accessed June 7, 2018]).
  70. Jump up ↑ Benjamin Luig, Fran Paula de Castro and Alan Tygel (both Campanha Permanente Contra os Agrotóxicos e Pela Vida), Lena Luig (INKOTA network), Simphiwe Dada (Khanyisa), Sarah Schneider (MISEREOR) and Jan Urhahn (Rosa-Luxemburg- Foundation): Dangerous pesticides. (PDF; 2.4 MB) from Bayer and BASF - a global business with double standards. Rosa Luxemburg Foundation , INKOTA network , Episcopal Aid Organization Misereor u. a., April 2020, accessed on April 25, 2020 .
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on August 23, 2006 .

Coordinates: 49 ° 29 ′ 47 "  N , 8 ° 25 ′ 57"  E