Cognis was a worldwide supplier of

specialty chemicals Speciality chemicals (also called specialties or effect chemicals) are particular chemical products which provide a wide variety of effects on which many other industry sectors rely. Some of the categories of speciality chemicals are adhesives, agr ...

and nutritional ingredients, headquartered in Monheim am Rhein, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The company employs about 5,600 people and operates production or service centers in almost 30 countries. Cognis was acquired by BASF in 2010. Cognis was an integrated part of

Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, commonly known as Henkel, is a German multinational chemical and consumer goods company headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany. It is active in both the consumer and industrial sectors. Founded in 1876, the DAX company is organi ...

, a German consumer products company, until 1999, when it became an operationally independent business unit. In November 2001, Cognis was bought by private equity funds

Permira Permira is a global investment firm. Founded in 1985, the firm advises funds with assets under management of €60+ billion. The Permira funds have made approximately 300 private equity investments in four key sectors: Technology, Consumer, Ser ...

, GS Capital Partners and SV Life Sciences.

BASF BASF Societas Europaea, SE () is a German multinational corporation, multinational chemical company and the List of largest chemical producers, largest chemical producer in the world. Its headquarters is located in Ludwigshafen, Germany. The ...

reached an agreement with Cognis Holding Luxembourg S.à r.l. — which is controlled by Permira Funds, GS Capital Partners and SV Life Sciences — to acquire the specialty chemicals company Cognis for an equity purchase price of €700 million. Including net financial debt and pension obligations, the

enterprise value Enterprise value (EV), total enterprise value (TEV), or firm value (FV) is an economic measure reflecting the market value of a business (i.e. as distinct from market price). It is a sum of claims by all claimants: creditors (secured and unsecured) ...

of the transaction is €3.1 billion. The acquisition is subject to clearance by the competent merger control authorities. Closing of the transaction occurred in December 2010.

References

{{Authority control Specialty chemical companies Companies based in North Rhine-Westphalia BASF Chemical companies of Germany German corporate subsidiaries