BASF has announced its integration plans for Cognis. The company expects to achieve an additional EBIT of €275 million—more than 10% of Cognis’ 2009 net sales—through the integration. This consists of growth synergy targets to generate an additional EBIT of €135 million by 2015 and cost synergies of around €140 million, which will be achieved by the end of 2013. To achieve the growth targets, 230 additional jobs will be created worldwide, mainly in the Care Chemicals division. At the same time, BASF plans to shed 680 positions due to overlaps in functional and administrative units as well as measures to improve efficiency. This means an overall reduction of 450 positions in the BASF Group, most of which will be realized by the end of 2012.

“We see great potential for profitable growth in our Performance Products segment,” said Dr. John Feldmann, member of BASF’s Board of Executive Directors, responsible for BASF’s Performance Products segment and the Cognis integration. “Through the acquisition, we have strengthened our activities in attractive growing markets such as personal and home care, nutrition and health, coating additives synlubes and mining chemicals. The businesses complement each other excellently and allow us to offer our customers a comprehensive portfolio of products and solutions from both renewable and petro-based chemistry.”

“Over the past months, the joint integration teams have identified growth areas and defined cost synergies and worked out the plans to successfully integrate Cognis into the BASF Group,” said Michael Heinz, BASF’s global integration manager for Cognis. “We will now work on implementing these measures to create additional value for our customers and for our company. We aim to complete the major parts of the structural integration by the end of 2011.”

The growth measures aim to generate an additional EBIT of around €135 million by 2015. They include leveraging the extended customer base, the extended solution capabilities and innovation capabilities, as well as the regional setup of the combined business. The cost synergies of around €140 million will be achieved by the end of 2013. Main drivers are the combination of procurement activities, the consolidation of administrative structures, the improvement of production efficiency, as well as the consolidation of the IT landscape. Future site footprint and concept for Düsseldorf area BASF plans to maintain 26 of the 28 Cognis production sites. Hythe, U.K., will be sold. For Tromsoe, Norway, future strategic options will be evaluated. Of Cognis’ 37 non-production sites, 26 will be consolidated with existing BASF sites or exited, nine will remain and two are still under review. BASF’s European Regional Business Unit (RBU) Personal Care will be located at Cognis’ former company headquarters in Monheim, Germany. The Düsseldorf-Holthausen production site, which was Cognis’ largest site, will be one of the Care Chemicals division’s key sites within its global production network, the center for global development in Personal Care and an important platform focusing on renewable-based ingredients as part of BASF’s corporate research.

“We will continue to focus on our customers’ needs and put the highest priority on ensuring that there are no business disruptions of any kind during the integration process,” said Mr. Feldmann. “In order to maintain high customer satisfaction in the course of the process and system changes within the integration we have already started to implement various measures in close cooperation with our customers.”