New business areas strengthen BASF

22 Feb '07

3 min read

In 2006, BASF – The Chemical Company reached important goals. For the first time in the company's history, sales passed the €50 billion mark, and income from operations (EBIT) before special items climbed to a new record of more than €7.2 billion.

“Our ambitious team has achieved this using its own strength. The economic tailwind also aided us. Our value-enhancing acquisitions in the areas of catalysts, construction chemicals and resins for paint and printing systems have helped us to grow in highly innovative areas and have brought us closer to our customers. At the same time, we have broadened our competence and have become more resilient to cyclicality,” said BASF's Chairman, Dr. Jürgen Hambrecht, at the company's Annual Press Conference in Ludwigshafen, Germany.

In 2006, BASF again earned a high premium of €2.1 billion on its cost of capital and grew faster than the market. Sales increased by 23 percent to almost €53 billion. The businesses acquired in 2006 contributed €4.2 billion to this amount. EBIT before special items climbed 18 percent to more than €7.2 billion.

BASF is making good progress in integrating the businesses it acquired in 2006 and is on track to largely complete the process as planned by the middle of 2007. The company expects to achieve full synergies of approximately €290 million per year by 2010. This amount is significantly higher than expected.

Optimistic outlook for 2007: Strong sales growth
Hambrecht's outlook for the further course of 2007 was positive. BASF is basing its business planning for 2007 on the following assumptions:

More BASF News... More Textiles News - Germany...