Ciba AG

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Ciba

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1996
resolution 2010
Reason for dissolution Company merger with
BASF Schweiz AG
Seat Basel , Switzerland
management Walter Gerhard Seufert ( Chairman of the Board of Directors )
Andreas Konrad Dür (Chairman of the Management Board )
Number of employees 12,467 (December 31, 2008)
sales 5.919 billion CHF (2008)
Branch Chemical industry
Website www.ciba.com ( Memento from March 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive )

The Ciba AG (short for Chemical Industry Basel , formerly Ciba Specialty Chemicals Inc. (1996), Ciba Specialty Chemicals Inc. (1996 to 2007); former parent company Ciba Holding AG ), based in Basel was an internationally active Swiss company quality in the field of chemical specialties , primarily for industrial applications in the automotive, construction, mining and oil, cosmetics, agriculture, electronics industry materials, monomers and water-soluble polymers , paper industry, detergents , lubricants and water treatment industries .

In 2008 the company was taken over by the German chemical company BASF and integrated into the BASF group in April 2009. Ciba AG initially continued to appear on the market under the old name, but was then renamed BASF Schweiz AG in March 2010 .

In its last financial year as an independent group under the umbrella of Ciba Holding, the corporate group had around 13,300 employees in 60 companies in 20 countries and 22 research centers in twelve countries. In 2007 the group achieved sales of around 6.523 billion Swiss francs in the three business areas Plastic Additives , Coating Effects and Water & Paper Treatment .

history

Older logo

CIBA was founded in 1997 under the name Ciba Specialty Chemicals as a spin-off of the chemicals division from Novartis , which had emerged a year earlier from the merger of the companies Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy . In the following year, the British company Allied Colloids was integrated into Ciba Specialty Chemicals , resulting in the new water treatment division . In 2000, the sold Ciba Specialty Chemicals the area Performance Polymers of Huntsman with the objective of being able to align itself more strongly on high quality specialty chemicals. In August 2000, Ciba Specialty Chemicals was listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CSB) for the first time . In 2004 the Finnish company Raisio Chemicals was bought up and CIBA Specialty Chemicals became one of the most important suppliers of chemicals for the paper industry. In 2006 Ciba sold the "Masterbatches" business unit to Clariant International and the "Textile Effects" business unit to the American Huntsman Group. A year later, CIBA deleted the term “specialty chemicals” from the company name and from then on called itself just Ciba . In 2008, the CEO changed from Armin Meyer to Brendan Cummins. In November of the same year, BASF received almost 95% of the Ciba shares by way of a public takeover offer. The acquisition by BASF was completed on April 9, 2009 and the integration of Ciba into BASF began . On June 23, 2009, the general assembly approved the merger agreement and declared the Ciba Holding shares to be invalid. With the entry of the merger in the commercial register, Ciba Holding AG ended as the parent company of the Ciba Group.

Takeover by BASF

On September 15, 2008, BASF announced a public takeover offer for Ciba for a total price of 6.1 billion Swiss francs. The takeover was subject to the approval of Ciba shareholders, a minimum acceptance rate of 66.67% and approval by the relevant competition authorities . As part of this process, 53,376,268 shares were tendered to BASF by the end of the grace period. Including the Ciba shares that BASF already held before the announcement was published, the Ciba shares that BASF had acquired outside of the public offer from the Spanish investor group Bestinver, and the own shares held by Ciba itself, BASF’s participation came to the end November 2008 thus a total of 65,328,153 Ciba shares; this corresponded to 94.59% of the Ciba shares issued. After fulfilling the requirements of several antitrust authorities, including those from the USA and China, BASF completed the takeover on April 9, 2009.

The timing of the takeover was widely criticized in the business press as weak. Since the announcement was made only a few hours before the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, as a result of which company valuations were significantly cheaper worldwide, a significantly lower purchase price could have been achieved shortly afterwards.

In a press release published by BASF on July 6, 2009, the company announced that it intended to sell or close a total of 23 of the 55 former Ciba production sites, as well as the amalgamation of more than half of the 70 sales offices and research sites. As a result of the corporate restructuring, 3700 jobs will continue to be cut.

On March 1, 2010, BASF merged its two Swiss-based corporate groups, Ciba AG and BASF Schweiz AG , to form the new BASF Schweiz AG , based in Basel, formerly Wädenswil .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b Entry of "Ciba AG" in the commercial register of the canton of Basel-Stadt ( memento of the original from January 24, 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 / bs.powernet.ch
  2. ^ Ciba AG, headquarters in Basel
  3. a b Entry of "Ciba Holding AG" in the commercial register of the Canton of Basel-Stadt  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / bs.powernet.ch  
  4. a b c Media release from BASF from November 20, 2008: "Final result for Ciba offer is 94.59 percent"
  5. Media release from Ciba and BASF on April 9, 2009: Ciba acquisition perfect: BASF starts integration process  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: 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  
  6. Welcome to Ciba
  7. A brand disappears: Ciba is now called BASF Schweiz AG . In: Basler Zeitung , March 1, 2010
  8. ciba.com: BASF's public takeover offer for Ciba (September 15, 2008)
  9. specialchem4coatings.com: Merger Control Authorities Approve Acquisition of Ciba by BASF (April 6, 2009)
  10. Siegfried Hoffmann: Ciba takeover too expensive. BASF: Acquisition in rough seas. In: Handelsblatt . January 19, 2009. Retrieved December 9, 2017 .
  11. Jürgen Salz: BASF is not getting anywhere with corporate restructuring. In: Wirtschaftswoche . August 25, 2009. Retrieved December 9, 2017 .
  12. basf.com : Integration of Ciba: BASF specifies restructuring plans  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: 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   (July 6, 2009)
  13. Ciba disappears - now BASF Switzerland