Cognis owners decide to sell shares to BASF

Cognis Holding Luxembourg S.à r.l. signed a sale and purchase agreement to sell 100% of the shares in Cognis Holding GmbH to BASF SE for €3.1 billion (US$3.78 billion). Cognis, a worldwide supplier of specialty chemicals and nutritional ingredients, recorded sales of about €2.6 billion (US$3.17 billion) last year. Besides Germany’s chemical giant BASF, U.S.-additive manufacturer Lubrizol Corp. and one other company made a bid for Cognis. But buy-out firms Permira and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, which control Cognis, gave BASF preferred status during the bidding process, even though BASF’s offer was lower than Lubrizol’s reported bid of €3.2 billion (US$3.9 billion). The transaction is subject to the usual closing conditions, including regulatory approval, and is expected to be formally completed at the latest by November. (June 23, 2010)