Brenntag

Brenntag AG
legal form	Corporation
ISIN	DE000A1DAHH0
founding	1874
Seat	Essen , Germany
management	Christian Kohlpaintner, CEO Karsten Beckmann Markus Klähn Georg Müller Henri Nejade Stefan Zuke, Chairman of the Supervisory Board
Number of employees	around 17,492
sales	12.8 billion euros (2019)
Branch	chemistry
Website	www.brenntag.com
As of December 31, 2019

The Brenntag AG is the holding company for the Brenntag Group, the global market leader in chemical distribution is. The company is based in Essen .

Business activity

Brenntag AG's business activities essentially include the distribution and processing of chemicals such as specialty chemicals. Brenntag connects chemical producers and the processing industry, so it is a business-to-business company. Brenntag operates a global network of 580 locations in 73 countries with over 16,600 employees.

Brenntag AG is headquartered in Essen , the German national company is also in Essen.

history

In 1874, Philipp Mühsam first founded an egg wholesaler in Berlin , which later became the basis for Brenntag. The company quickly brought in a decent return and soon became a public company. But even in the founding phase, individual small amounts in the balance sheets showed a small additional income in the drug trade towards the end of the 1870s. In 1912 Mühsam AG entered the chemical distribution market and established its own chemical production. When the company founder died in 1914, his son Kurt Mühsam took over management of the company together with Julius Herz.

Due to the inflation after the First World War and the difficult working conditions in the 1920s, Mühsam could only grow slowly. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, the chemical company was faced with the further problem that the name "Mühsam" was classified as Jewish by the Nazis . As a result, there were calls for boycotts and the members of the board were persecuted.

In December 1936, the Mühsam family therefore decided to sell the company to the Berlin entrepreneur Hugo Stinnes jr. for sale. Julius Herz, the CEO of Philipp Mühsam AG, anticipated the compulsory Aryanization of the company. In February 1937, the Stinnes family took over the majority of Philipp Mühsam AG from the Mühsam family, who emigrated to the United States . For this purpose, shares to the value of 612,000 Reichsmarks were purchased and the company incorporated into the private ownership of Stinnes. In July 1937 Philipp Mühsam AG became BRENNTAG Fuel-Chemicals and Transport AG. Five years later, in 1943/44, the head office was relocated from Berlin to Mülheim an der Ruhr .

Brenntag's House of Elements, head office in Essen.

After the end of the Second World War, Brenntag started a new beginning with five employees in Mülheim. In 1966 Brenntag became active outside of Germany for the first time and in the early 1970s the company entered the US market. In the 1980s, expansion in the USA progressed through the acquisition of various distribution companies. In the following decade, the company expanded through acquisitions and joint ventures in Europe. With the takeover of Holland Chemical International , then the fifth largest chemical trading company in the world, Brenntag gained significant market shares in Scandinavia , Eastern Europe and the USA in 2000 and became the market leader in Latin America . In the following ten years, Brenntag acquired other companies around the world and increased its market share. At the same time, new distribution centers were built in strategic locations.

In February 2003, bought German railway , the Stinnes AG and with it the Brenntag. In March 2004, the US private equity company Bain Capital took over Brenntag from Bahn AG. In July 2006 the British private equity company BC Partners took over Brenntag from Bain Capital as part of a secondary buyout . The acquisitions of the Asia-Pacific business of Rhodia (2008) and EAC Industrial Ingredients Ltd. A / S (2010) Brenntag entered the Asia-Pacific market and significantly expanded its local presence.

Brenntag AG shares have been listed on the regulated market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since March 29, 2010 . On June 21, 2010 Brenntag was admitted to the MDAX . Since July 2012, 100% of the company's shares have been in free float.

In May 2011, Brenntag acquired the industrial chemicals trader GS Robins & Company, St. Louis , in the USA , with sales of US $ 96 million. On September 17, 2013, it was announced that Brenntag was expanding its business in India . The group of companies acquired the food additives trade from the Zytex biotechnology group for ten million euros. It becomes part of Brenntag India, headquartered in Mumbai . On April 28, 2015, the group announced that it would move its headquarters to Essen at the end of 2017 .

Former headquarters of Brenntag AG in Mülheim an der Ruhr

In the context of the PIP scandal involving breast implants with silicone not intended for medical use, it became known that Brenntag had supplied the relevant material "Baysilone" from the manufacturer Momentive Performance Materials to the French company Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) .

This silicone oil is a standard product that is used in many different industrial applications. For example, silicone oil is used as a release agent in production processes, in the personal care industry it is used in shampoos and skin creams and in the construction industry it is used in sealants.

Web links

• Brenntag AG website
• Early newspaper articles on Brenntag in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Annual Report 2019. In: brenntag.com. Retrieved May 13, 2020 . 
2. ↑ Annual Report 2016. In: brenntag.com. 2017, accessed March 9, 2017 . 
3. ↑ Annual Report 2018. In: brenntag.com. Retrieved March 7, 2019 . 
4. ↑ history brenntag.lv , accessed on November 14, 2014
5. ↑ European Coatings: 125 Years of Brenntag , accessed on November 14, 2014
6. ↑ ^{a b} Brenntag AG: History. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 10, 2012 ; Retrieved March 17, 2011 . 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.  
7. ^ Brenntag AG: Basic information on the company's share. (No longer available online.) March 27, 2010, archived from the original on October 23, 2010 ; Retrieved March 17, 2011 . 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.  
8. ^ Dax reorganization: Expensive purchases for index funds. WirtschaftsWoche, June 21, 2010, accessed on March 17, 2011 . 
9. ↑ A DAX candidate after Brachem's exit? Report in Wall Street online from July 6, 2012, accessed on December 26, 2017
10. ↑ BK: Brenntag continues to buy . In: FAZ , May 31, 2011
11. ↑ Brenntag is expanding distribution in the Indian market  ( 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. , accessed September 18, 2013  
12. ↑ Price according to WAZ of September 18, 2013
13. ^ FAZ online: Cheap implants, Dangerous Breasts January 4, 2012
14. ↑ Spiegel online: Dangerous breast implants January 3, 2012
15. ↑ Handelsblatt online: PIP denies the use of industrial silicone January 3, 2012