Dr. Markus Kamieth was assigned as Chairman of the Executive Board of the BASF Group

On April 25, BASF held its 2024 Annual General Meeting of shareholders, and Dr. Markus Kamieth took over as Chairman of the Executive Board of the BASF Group. At the meeting, the outgoing chairman of the Board, Dr. Martin Brudermuller, presented his successor, Dr. Kelley, with a cycling jacket printed with the BASF LOGO.

According to the financial report, BASF Group's sales in the first quarter of 2024 were 17.6 billion euros, a decrease of 12.2% year-on-year. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, before special items, were 2.7 billion euros in the first quarter, mainly due to a significant decline in earnings due to an increase in bonus provisions in "other businesses". In addition, the agricultural solutions and surface treatment technology business revenue also decreased compared to the same period last year. Profit after tax was 1.411 billion euros, down 12.1% year-on-year. Net profit was 1.368 billion euros, down 12.4 percent from a year earlier.

Basf said that global economic developments remain uncertain. The global chemical industry recovered slightly in the first quarter, growing significantly faster than overall industrial production, as customer industries replenished their very low inventories to some extent.

Dr. Markus Kamieth received his PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Essen in Germany in 1998, began his career at BASF the following year and has been a member of the Executive Board of BASF since 2017. Dr. Martin Brudermüller has been with BASF for 36 years and has been chairman of the Executive Board of the BASF Group since 2018.

In addition to the personnel adjustment, BASF also previously announced new progress in the implementation of corporate strategy. According to BASF, a key element of the corporate strategy presented in 2018 is to transform BASF into a customer-centric organization by empowering business units to better meet customer needs. Since then, BASF has taken various measures to improve the management capabilities of its business units.

”Elvermann said: "The company is taking a solid step to adjust the management model of each business to continue to improve BASF's competitiveness. We will manage each business unit in a more differentiated way, combining the benefits of differentiated management, an integrated business and an integrated corporate structure."

Through differentiated management, businesses will further adapt their specific business models and processes, while adapting the corresponding process structures, information technology systems and management frameworks. For businesses that are less integrated with the integrated business, the company will give them more autonomy to better meet the needs of their customer industries, while maintaining the advantages of being an integrated business. This approach will be applied to battery Materials and Coatings in the company's surface treatment technology business area, as well as agricultural solutions.

As of January 2024, BASF will adopt new key performance indicators (KPIs) to guide the entire group. In the short to medium term, the company will pay more attention to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and cash flow before special items. At the same time, the company will continue to use return on capital employed (ROCE) as a management key performance indicator in the medium term and continue to focus on asset profitability.

Basf's global headquarters are located in Germany and its products are divided into six business areas: Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions, Surface Treatment Technology, Nutrition and Care, and Agricultural Solutions. In 2023, BASF had global sales of 68.9 billion euros and employs more than 112,000 people worldwide.