Evonik rejects BASF's 24-euro takeover bid as third-quarter profit climbs 40%

Third-quarter results

Evonik reported third-quarter sales of 3.8 billion euros, up 13 percent on the year-earlier period and the fastest rise in four years. Adjusted Ebitda climbed 40 percent to 629 million euros, slightly below the 633 million euros that analysts polled by Vara had expected. The group still posted a net loss of 53 million euros, narrower than the 106 million euros lost in the same quarter a year earlier. Provisions of 313 million euros for an extended savings programme were among the charges that weighed on the bottom line.

Reported, Q3 2026629

Analyst expectation (Vara poll)633

Reported, Q3 2026

629 million euros

Analyst expectation (Vara poll)

633 million euros

Data from the article text

Q3 2025-106

Q3 2026-53

Q3 2025

-106 million euros

Q3 2026

-53 million euros

Data from the article text

Savings and full-year outlook

Evonik is extending its cost-cutting plan through 2029, including the removal of 3,200 jobs worldwide. Interim chief executive Claus Rettig is restructuring the group and cutting positions to return it to profit. For the full year, the company now expects adjusted operating profit in the upper half of its forecast range of 2 to 2.2 billion euros, a range it raised in June. Rettig put the company's position simply.

“We are strong and robust.”

Supply shortages at Asian competitors caused by the Middle East crisis have helped Evonik's prices and volumes, while disruptions linked to the Strait of Hormuz have lifted demand across the sector. BASF also benefited in the quarter from higher prices and stronger demand tied to the Middle East conflict.

The BASF bid

BASF has raised its offer to 24 euros per share, which would total about 11 billion euros. A combined group would have annual sales of around 74 billion euros. Evonik has rejected even the higher offer, considers itself large enough to go it alone, and is willing only to exchange confidential information with BASF. Finance chief Michael Rauch called the timing strange in a LinkedIn video, saying:

“The exploratory offer from BASF came very unexpectedly for us and at a really strange moment.”

Rauch made the remark while CEO Christian Kullmann is out after a serious operation until at least the end of the year.

Essen and the wider debate

Evonik has also opened a new silicone production facility at its Goldschmidtstraße site in Essen. The plant and a new tank farm cost about 52 million euros, and the products go into insulation, mattresses, car seats, adhesives, paints and cosmetics. Evonik says the investment will expand capacity, shorten transport routes and make deliveries to customers more reliable. The Essen site, with about 2,200 employees, is meant to be strengthened as a production and development hub. Staff in Essen fear being absorbed by the much larger Ludwigshafen group, where BASF is based, and Evonik has also set its sights on the US rival Ashland.