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Chemicals giant BASF wants to takeover Swiss rival Ciba

BASF, the world's biggest chemical company, said Monday it aimed to take over Swiss rival Ciba for €3.8 billion ($5.4 billion).

Published: 15 September 2008 12:20 CEST

The group said it was offering Ciba shareholders €30 per share which was 32 percent more than the closing price Friday and 60 percent more than the average over the last 30 days before the announcement of the takeover bid.

Ciba’s board of directors backs the deal, BASF said in a statement, adding that it would formally make its offer on October 1.

Ciba shares soared on the Swiss stock market Monday after BASF’s statement. By 10 am the stock had gained 28.95 percent to 49 Swiss francs while the Swiss Leader Index slid 2.38 percent.

BASF had said recently it was interested in new acquisitions, particularly in the specialized chemicals sector.

“In the current consolidation phase in the chemicals industry, the acquisition of Ciba offers clear advantages in terms of global competition,” BASF head Jürgen Hambrecht said in a statement.

CARS

German chemical giant BASF to make car battery parts near Tesla Berlin site

German chemical giant BASF says it will build a factory making key components for electric car batteries in Brandenburg state, not far from Tesla's first European "Gigafactory" just outside Berlin.

Published: 12 February 2020 15:35 CET
Updated: 12 February 2020 17:35 CET
German chemical giant BASF to make car battery parts near Tesla Berlin site
Photo: DPA

Set for a site in Schwarzheide, 100 kilometres (62 miles) from the planned Tesla plant, BASF's factory “will produce cathode active materials with an initial capacity enabling the supply of around 400,000 full electric vehicles per year,” the company said in a statement.

It did not immediately say how many jobs would be created.

The Brandenburg unit will work in tandem with a plant in Finland producing precursors for the cathodes, the part of a battery cell that passes current to the rest of the electrical circuit.

Both are scheduled to come online in 2022.

READ ALSO: Protests as Tesla receives approval for factory purchase near Berlin

The project “is part of our first joint European project on battery cell production,” German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said in a statement.

Several European Union member states, led by Germany and France, have offered billions in subsidies to build up an “Airbus of batteries”, seeing the globally competitive pan-European aircraft builder as a model for future industries.

Batteries make up around 40 percent of the value of an electric car, but are currently made by companies in South Korea, China and Japan.

Although Europe's industrial giants fear for their business models built in the combustion engine age, none was prepared to take the plunge into cell-making without government help.

Across Germany in Kaiserslautern, France's Peugeot now plans a two-billion-euro ($2.2 billion) battery cell production site that will supply batteries for up to 500,000 vehicles a year by 2024.

READ ALSO: Seven WWII bombs defused at Tesla's factory site near Berlin

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