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BASF

Winning Ways, From September 2024

We create chemistry for a sustainable future
BASF’s purpose

Winning Ways

BASF’s plants are linked into a Verbund, where the products, by-products, and heat of one plant feed the next. Its strategy, Winning Ways, set out in September 2024, splits the company in two. The core businesses are part of the Verbund and compete on integration and cost. The standalone businesses serve their own industries on their own terms, and BASF has sold some of them or is preparing them for a listing.

Each step makes the materials for the next, and products are sold at every step of the value chain.

“The by-products of one plant can be used as the starting materials of another.”
BASF, on the Verbund

Seven Verbund sites

Together they make more than half of BASF’s volumes.

Europe

  • Ludwigshafen Germany
  • Antwerp Belgium

North America

  • Freeport Texas, US
  • Geismar Louisiana, US

Asia

  • Kuantan Malaysia
  • Nanjing China
  • Zhanjiang ChinaThe newest site. It made its first products in 2025, and its steam cracker started up at the end of December 2025.

BASF runs its core and standalone businesses differently

The core businesses are linked into the Verbund and compete on integration and cost. The standalone businesses serve particular industries and compete with specialist peers, so they are run with more freedom.,

Core businesses€37.9bn

Surface Technologies€9.0bn

Agricultural Solutions€9.6bn

A hexagon is about €1 billion of sales in 2025.,

Core

Standalone

The standalone businesses

  • CoatingsSold

    Sold to Carlyle on 30 June 2026 at an enterprise value of €7.7 billion. BASF keeps 40% of the new company, Surventis. Brazilian decorative paints went to Sherwin-Williams in October 2025.,

  • Agricultural SolutionsListing planned

    BASF is preparing it for a listing in Frankfurt, with IPO readiness targeted by mid-2027, and means to stay the majority shareholder.,

  • Environmental Catalyst and Metal SolutionsKept

    BASF is keeping it because it brings in a lot of cash in a low-growth market. It has been run as a carved-out business since 2023.,

  • Battery MaterialsKept

    BASF is filling the capacity it already has and looking for partners, with lower fixed costs and capital expenditure.,

Focus, Accelerate, Transform, and Win

Focus

Lever 1
  1. Core businessesRun the core businesses leaner and more cost-efficiently, so they stay profitable and ahead of competitors.
  2. Standalone businessesGive the standalone businesses the freedom to respond quickly to what their customers need.

The Coatings business was sold to Carlyle on 30 June 2026, at an enterprise value of €7.7 billion. BASF keeps 40% of Surventis, as it is now called.

Banks were mandated in September 2026 for a planned listing of Agricultural Solutions, with IPO readiness targeted by mid-2027.

  1. Sort the portfolio by how each business wins.

    BASF splits its businesses into core ones, which win through the Verbund’s integration and cost, and standalone ones, which compete with specialist peers in their own industries. It steers each kind differently. We recommend grouping your businesses by how they compete, then running each group in the way that suits it.

  2. Unlock value without walking away.

    BASF sold its Coatings business but kept 40% of it, and plans to list Agricultural Solutions while staying the majority shareholder. We recommend asking, for a business you no longer need to run, whether you still want a share in how it does.

  3. Name the behaviours.

    Win, the fourth lever, is about culture, and it is summed up in three short phrases: Own it! Drive it! Excel in it! We recommend naming a few behaviours in words people will use, and making them part of the plan.

Sources

  1. 1. BASF SE (2024). BASF presents new corporate strategy: BASF is setting a new direction for portfolio steering, capital allocation and performance culture. News release, 26 September 2024. basf.com
  2. 2. BASF SE (2025). BASF presents progress on “Winning Ways” strategy. News release, 2 October 2025. basf.com
  3. 3. BASF SE (2026). Our Strategic Levers. BASF Report 2025, 27 February 2026. report.basf.com
  4. 4. BASF SE (2026). Sites and Business Environment. BASF Report 2025, 27 February 2026. report.basf.com
  5. 5. BASF SE (2026). Segments. BASF Report 2025, 27 February 2026. report.basf.com
  6. 6. BASF SE (2026). BASF focuses on strengthening and growing its core businesses in the next phase of its “Winning Ways” strategy. News release, 20 May 2026. basf.com
  7. 7. BASF SE (2026). BASF and Carlyle complete coatings transaction. News release, 1 July 2026. basf.com
  8. 8. BASF SE (2026). BASF strengthens its position in the market and achieves major progress on restructuring and portfolio measures. News release, 29 July 2026. basf.com
  9. 9. BASF SE (2025). BASF targets Frankfurt Stock Exchange as listing location for Agricultural Solutions and presents its new Management Board. News release, 11 November 2025. basf.com
  10. 10. BASF SE (2026). BASF mandates investment banks for planned IPO of Agricultural Solutions. News release, 14 September 2026. basf.com
  11. 11. BASF SE (2026). Verbund. BASF, accessed 28 September 2026. basf.com
  12. 12. BASF SE (2026). BASF Verbund. BASF Factbook, accessed 28 September 2026. basf.com
  13. 13. BASF SE (2026). Our Strategic Levers. BASF Investor Relations, accessed 28 September 2026. basf.com
  14. 14. BASF SE (2026). Business Segments. BASF Investor Relations, accessed 28 September 2026. basf.com
  15. 15. BASF SE (2026). Who we are. BASF, accessed 28 September 2026. basf.com

Headwater is not connected with BASF SE. BASF, Verbund, and Surventis are trade marks of their owners. Updated 28 September 2026.

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