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Altana AG (styled as ALTANA) is a German chemical company headquartered in
Wesel Wesel () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the capital of the Wesel district. Geography Wesel is situated at the confluence of the Lippe River and the Rhine. Division of the city Suburbs of Wesel include Lackhausen, Obrighove ...
. It was created in 1977 through the spin-off of divisions of the Varta Group. The first CEO was
Herbert Quandt Herbert Werner Quandt (22 June 1910 – 2 June 1982) was a German industrialist credited with having saved BMW when it was at the point of bankruptcy and made a huge profit in doing so. Quandt also oversaw the use at his family's factories ...
. The group comprises the divisions BYK (coating additives and instruments), Eckart (metal effect pigments and metallic printing inks), Elantas (insulation materials for the electrical and electronics industries) and Actega (coatings and sealant compounds for the packaging industry). The Altana Group has 48 production facilities and 65 service and research laboratories worldwide. In 2021, the company, with more than 6,700 employees, posted revenues of around €2.7 billion.


History

Altana's roots go back to 1873, when Heinrich Byk founded the chemicals factory Dr. Heinrich Byk Chemische Fabrik in
Oranienburg Oranienburg () is a town in Brandenburg, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Oberhavel. Geography Oranienburg is a town located on the banks of the Havel river, 35 km north of the centre of Berlin. Division of the town Oranienburg ...
. The company grew, and in 1931 it was renamed BYK-Gulden Lomberg. In 1941, majority control of the company was acquired by AFA (Akkumulatoren-Fabrik AG) which was renamed
VARTA VARTA AG (; german: link=no, Vertrieb, Aufladung, Reparatur transportabler Akkumulatoren – ) is a German company manufacturing batteries for global automotive, industrial, and consumer markets. History VARTA was founded by Adolf Müller in ...
in 1962. In 1977 VARTA was split into three companies, one of which was Altana. From 1977 to 2010, Altana was publicly traded on the
Frankfurt Stock Exchange The Frankfurt Stock Exchange (german: link=no, Börse Frankfurt, former German name – FWB) is the world's 12th largest stock exchange by market capitalization. It has operations from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm ( German time). Organisation Locat ...
. Altana was also admitted to trading on the
New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...
from 2002 to 2007. On 19 December 2006, the majority of
shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal own ...
s voted to approve the sale of the pharmaceuticals division to the Danish company
Nycomed Nycomed is a Swiss pharmaceutical company. Nycomed was acquired by Takeda Pharmaceuticals in September 2011. Production was located in Norway, Denmark, Poland, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Estonia, India, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. Head office i ...
. Nycomed is owned by an investment consortium led by
Nordic Capital Nordic Capital private equity funds focus on investments primarily in Northern Europe. Nordic Capital invests in selective industries with a particular focus on Healthcare, Tech & Payments and Financial Services. In addition selective investments ...
and
Credit Suisse Credit Suisse Group AG is a global investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. Headquartered in Zürich, it maintains offices in all major financial centers around the world and is one of the nine global " ...
. With the sale of the pharmaceuticals division, headquartered in
Konstanz Konstanz (, , locally: ; also written as Constance in English) is a university city with approximately 83,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the south of Germany. The city houses the University of Konstanz and was th ...
,
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, Altana lost a major pillar of its business. At that time, 9,000 of the company's 13,500 employees were working for Altana in the pharmaceuticals sector, generating two-thirds of the company's total revenue. And indeed, the balance-sheet revenues fell by around 60 percent in 2006, but gained over six percent in 2007. The patent for
pantoprazole Pantoprazole, sold under the brand name Protonix, among others, is a proton pump inhibitor used for the treatment of stomach ulcers, short-term treatment of erosive esophagitis due to gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), maintenance of heali ...
, the main revenue-generator for the former pharmaceuticals division, expired in 2009/2010. While the Altana Management Board justified the divestiture of the pharmaceutical business with delays in the approval of new products, increased research and development costs as well as strict regulatory requirements in the US and
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
, shareholder activists asserted that the management board had invested too little in the pharmaceutical business in the preceding years and had failed to develop successor products in time to compensate for the revenue losses to be expected due to the expiry of the pantaprazole patent at the end of the decade. The pharmaceuticals division was sold for €4.6 billion. The entire proceeds from the sale were disbursed to the shareholders, who received a special dividend of €33 per share. Critics expressed discontent that the main shareholder benefited most from the sale of the pharmaceuticals division. Until 1 January 2007, the company was organized into the pharmaceuticals division Altana Pharma AG, formerly Byk Gulden Lomberg Chemische Fabrik, headquartered in Konstanz, and the specialty chemicals division Altana Chemie AG based in
Wesel Wesel () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the capital of the Wesel district. Geography Wesel is situated at the confluence of the Lippe River and the Rhine. Division of the city Suburbs of Wesel include Lackhausen, Obrighove ...
. Since the sale of the pharmaceutical business to Nycomed, Altana has been operating exclusively in the specialty chemicals segment. This restructuring was accompanied by a change in the company logo, which was unified across all subsidiaries. On 6 November 2008, main shareholder SKion GmbH (Germany, owned by
Susanne Klatten Susanne Hanna Ursula Klatten ('' née'' Quandt, born 28 April 1962) is a German billionaire heiress, the daughter of Herbert and Johanna Quandt. As of January 2022, her net worth was estimated at US$23.4 billion, and the richest woman in Germ ...
) issued a public takeover offer of €13 per share for all outstanding shares, an action which drove up the stock price. A company spokesperson stated that the intention was to delist the company from public trading. To achieve this, SKion issued a second takeover offer of €14 per share to the remaining shareholders on 9 November 2009. On 30 December 2008, the
Frankfurt Stock Exchange The Frankfurt Stock Exchange (german: link=no, Börse Frankfurt, former German name – FWB) is the world's 12th largest stock exchange by market capitalization. It has operations from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm ( German time). Organisation Locat ...
announced that Altana would be removed from its
MDAX The MDAX is a stock index which lists German companies trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The index is calculated by Deutsche Börse. Until 2021 included the 60 Prime Standard shares from sectors that rank immediately below (in value of mar ...
index, as the increase in the share held by SKion had pushed the portion of stock held in free float to under ten percent. By June 2010, SKion held 95.04 percent of all shares. In Germany, the stock was traded mainly on the Frankfurt and Stuttgart Exchanges and the Xetra platform; internationally, it was admitted to trading on the
London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...
and the NASD Group, now FINRA, in the US. After SKion acquired the entire Altana stock through a squeeze-out, trading in this stock was suspended effective 27 August 2010.


References


External links


Website of Altana AG


Altana AG {{Authority control Chemical companies of Germany Companies based in North Rhine-Westphalia Chemical companies established in 1977 German brands 1977 establishments in West Germany Companies formerly in the MDAX Quandt family