BASF to restructure businesses after Ciba closure

04 February 2009 15:38  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--BASF will implement initial organisational changes from April after the expected closure of its Ciba Specialty Chemicals acquisition, the German chemicals major said on Wednesday.

BASF said it expected the approvals of the relevant antitrust authorities and the closing of the Ciba transaction toward the end of the first quarter.

Initial organisational changes would be effective as of 1 April, after which joint teams consisting of BASF and Ciba employees would analyse the acquired businesses in depth for a period of about two months.

The actual integration process, when Ciba’s business units were expected to be implemented, was then expected to start in the second half of 2009, said BASF.

The performance products segment, which currently consists of the acrylics ad dispersions, care chemicals and performance chemicals divisions will be joined by the new paper chemicals division. The head of the new division will be Ehrenfried Baumgartner, who is currently responsible for BASF’s inorganics division.

Ciba’s business with products for paper manufacturing will be integrated into the new division during the second half of the year.

The current acrylics and dispersions division, which will bundle BASF’s business with raw materials for the coating and paint industry, will be renamed dispersions and pigments.

The majority of Ciba’s coating effects business will be integrated into the dispersions and pigments division.

The existing dispersions business will be complemented by the pigments and coatings resins business that is currently part of the performance chemicals division.

The acrylics business will be reassigned to the petrochemicals division, which will then encompass the key steps in the propylene value chain. The superabsorbents business will be assigned to the care chemicals division.

In the care chemicals division, BASF is now combining all businesses that contribute to cleaning, personal care and hygiene in addition to human and animal nutrition as well as pharma.

In the future, the performance chemicals division will primarily offer innovative and specific solutions for a range of industries including plastics processing, automotive, refineries, oil fields and mining, as well as leather and textiles.

Ciba’s plastics additives business, among others, will be assigned to this division.

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By: Hilde Ovrebekk
+44 20 8652 3214

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