BASF Sticks to Merger Discipline After Evonik Rejects 10.3 Billion Euro Bid
Key Facts
BASF Chief Executive Markus Kamieth said the group was ready to begin merger talks with Evonik while maintaining price discipline, in a video message featured on the company's page updated on October 22. Kamieth said: "We will not pursue a merger at any price." His comments follow Evonik's rejection of a takeover offer worth 10.3 billion euros as too low, according to sources close to the negotiations cited by Reuters in a September 28 report. The offer was equivalent to 11.7 billion dollars when the report was published. According to the same sources, BASF offered about 22.15 euros per Evonik share, a price the target company did not accept.
BASF had confirmed in a statement that it was holding exploratory contacts with the RAG Foundation and Evonik over a potential acquisition. The group left the course and outcome of those contacts open, without determining the fate of efforts to combine the companies. In a subsequent report on the possibility of revised deal terms, Reuters cited two people close to BASF as saying the group could raise its offer if talks took place. Both linked that possibility to the opening of negotiations with Evonik. But Evonik told the agency at the time of that report that "no talks are currently under way," while Kamieth's message featured in October expressed BASF's readiness to begin them.
BASF places the potential acquisition within an approach it says aims to strengthen its core businesses and achieve a strategic fit that supports profitable growth and value creation. The group stressed in its statement that it takes a disciplined approach to acquisitions. In his message, Kamieth presented an operational rationale for combining the companies, linked to raw materials Evonik currently buys. He said BASF's integrated production network could supply some of those materials at a lower cost. He added that supplying Evonik through the network could be "more direct and reliable," linking the benefits of a potential merger to how production inputs are supplied.
Kamieth's message included a pledge to retain Essen and North Rhine-Westphalia as important locations if the companies combine. This included having at least one member of the executive board based there. The commitments also included the presence of business and central function leaders at the site, alongside executive representation. On share ownership, Reuters reported that any sale of Evonik shares held by the RAG Foundation requires approval from the foundation's board of trustees. The board includes North Rhine-Westphalia Premier Hendrik Wuest, making his approval a condition for the sale of the foundation's stake as part of any deal.
On employees, Reuters cited two people close to BASF in an October 12 report as saying the group was prepared to preserve Evonik's German site and employment guarantees. Those guarantees include ruling out compulsory redundancies in Germany until 2032. Under the terms cited, any job cuts must be voluntary. They must also be accompanied by severance payments, according to the agency's account of the guarantees BASF would retain in any agreement. The IG BCE union called for future prospects for Evonik employees, alongside commitments to invest in the company's sites.
The takeover efforts follow a decline in Evonik's sales during 2025, according to its annual results announcement. Sales totalled 14.1 billion euros, down 7% from the previous year. In its results for the second quarter of 2026, the company reported an increase in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation. Those earnings reached 630 million euros, up 24% from the corresponding period. The company thus recorded growth in the adjusted earnings measure during the second quarter, following the year in which its annual sales declined.
For the 2026 financial year, Evonik set guidance in its results announcement for adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation starting at 2.0 billion euros. The upper end of the range is 2.2 billion euros. BASF, meanwhile, scheduled its third-quarter results statement for October 28, 2026, according to its official investor calendar. The statement is due at 7.00 a.m. Central European Time, as specified by the company in its announcement. That date follows Kamieth's message outlining the group's readiness for talks and its commitments regarding the potential merger.