On March 23 2017 Stahl announced that it signed an agreement with BASF to acquire its Leather Chemicals assets, which is part of BASF Performance Chemicals Division.
BASF will receive 16% of the equity of Stahl, which is a leading company in process chemicals for leather and performance coatings. The company intends to take over all activities of BASF Leather Chemicals business, including a manufacturing site in Spain and approximately 210 employees. By combining forces of these two leading chemical companies, Stahl aims at strengthening its competitive position and improve sustainability in the industry.
“These are exciting and challenging times for the chemical industry in terms of sustainability and innovation. We believe we can only make a real difference if we can work on a large scale within the industry”, Huub van Beijeren, CEO of Stahl, explains. “The signing of this agreement enables us to accelerate the process of creating a more transparent sustainable supply chain as we share the same vision on reducing the environmental footprint linked to our activities”.
Equally important, the synergy advantages are numerous and will lead to new market opportunities for Stahl. “By combining our forces, we will have an even stronger product portfolio with more innovative solutions enabling us to serve our global clients even better”, van Beijeren continues.
BASF is one of the world’s leading chemical companies with approximately 114,000 employees. Stahl will take over the activities of the BASF Leather Chemicals business, including a manufacturing site in Spain. This business, with approximately 210 employees, offers leather chemicals for a broad range of industries such as Automotive, Apparel & Accessories, Home Interior and Leisure & Lifestyle.
Sustainable growth
The closing is expected to be finalized in the fourth quarter of 2017 after the approval of the relevant authorities and after employee consultations. This acquisition will be fully in line with Stahl’s growth strategy and is directly linked to its sustainability goals: achieving a more transparent supply chain. The company is constantly expanding its global presence via organic growth, technology acquisitions and partnerships to serve its customers better.
The combination of the two businesses generated pro forma1 net sales of € 850 million and EBITDA of more than € 200 million (on a 2016 basis).
Source: Stahl
The future CEO of thyssenkrupp Uhde, Nadja Håkansson, has held various management positions at Siemens and Siemens Energy and looks back on over 18 years of national and international experience in the areas of supply chain management, operations, sales and corporate management.
Neste and South Korean company Lotte Chemical have partnered on a project to elevate the sustainability profile of chemicals and plastics. The partnership’s ambition is to replace fossil resources with renewable raw materials that offer a lower carbon footprint.
At least the confidence in the chemical sector has been seeing an upward trend and the trade balance is recovering as destocking seems to be coming to an end. Citing projections from the European Central Bank, CEFIC states that the level of inflation is expected to fall from 5.4% in 2023 to 2.3% in 2024.
