BASF targets partial listing of agriculture division

Frankfurt | Reuters–BASF is planning a partial listing of its agricultural business because the stock market is underestimating the unit’s earnings prospects within the group, the German chemicals giant’s new CEO told staff on Wednesday.

Markus Kamieth also said on a global call that BASF would consider strategic options for its coatings business, which mainly caters to the car industry, including a potential joint venture or looking into having a different owner for the unit, according to a recording of the call made available to Reuters.

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Both businesses are highly successful earnings and cash flow generators, but “the capital market views it differently sometimes and they are undervalued as part of BASF”, Kamieth added.

A person familiar with the matter told Reuters that BASF did not have any potential buyers for the coatings business lined up. BASF, which is due to hold a capital markets day on Thursday, declined to comment.

Kamieth has continued his predecessor’s push to cut costs in Europe and reduce the group’s reliance on subdued markets there, while building a 10-billion-euro (C$15 billion) chemical complex in southern China to tap into faster growth in Asia.

Kamieth told employees, however, that he was more optimistic about the Ludwigshafen chemical complex in Germany, where BASF is headquartered, than for many years.

The site is competitive “in its core” but about 15-20 per cent of the plants at the complex, which are “rather peripheral”, would have to be monitored for their competitiveness over the next few years.

In December last year, BASF announced plans to turn its agriculture, battery materials and coatings businesses into autonomous units in a bid to boost earnings. Its catalytic converter business had previously been made more independent.

The CEO told employees on Wednesday that the four units would be regarded as “standalone”, as opposed to the remaining “core” businesses that are technically and commercially more closely integrated with each other.

BASF’s Agricultural Solutions unit had about 10 billion euros in sales last year, competing with Bayer, Corteva and China’s Syngenta.