More than 430 billion "earthquake" acquisition! Basf, ExxonMobil, DuPont and others are doing this in response to the economic downturn... Exxonmobil, an American supergiant, the largest energy exploration and extraction company in the United States and formerly the largest company in the world by market capitalization, is closing in on a deal to buy shale giant Pioneer Natural Resources, It's a blockbuster acquisition worth about $60 billion (about 438.09 billion yuan) that will reshape the U.S. oil industry.
A successful takeover of Pioneer, which has a market value of about $50bn, would be Exxon's biggest deal since it merged with Mobil in 1999. That would make Exxon the biggest producer in the oil-rich Permian basin of West Texas and New Mexico, pumping about 1.2 million barrels a day, more than many Opec countries. If the deal goes through, it would be the biggest acquisition this year. It would also extend Exxon's inventory at top drilling sites in the basin for decades, providing low-cost, low-risk crude beyond 2050 for its vast network of refineries along the Gulf Coast.
The deal, which was revealed back in April, has been described as "seismic" and reports say the agreement could be completed in the coming days if complications do not arise. Exxon has been exploring options that would take it deeper into the West Texas shale fields after it posted record profits in 2022 and was flush with cash. Buying Pioneer, which has a market value of about $50 billion, would give Exxon a dominant position in the oil-rich Permian Basin, an area the oil major has said is integral to its growth plans. Basf to sell €10 billion business
On October 4, according to the German newspaper Handelsblatt, BASF CEO Martin Brudermuller will push ahead with the separation of some of the group's businesses before he leaves office. At present, BASF has put four sales projects on the agenda, with potential sales of up to 10 billion euros (about 78 billion yuan). Chemical giant BASF is feeling the effects of the recession. In the first half of this year, the German-listed company's sales fell by a fifth, and its operating results even fell by more than 40%. Clearly, the outgoing CEO wants to hand over a clear portfolio to his successor. According to German media reports, BASF has four business lines "at risk" : one is the oil and gas production subsidiary Wintershall Dea, which BASF had planned to separate from the parent company several years ago. Interested buyers include France's Totalenergies and Norwegian producer Equinor, with a sovereign wealth fund from ABU Dhabi also in the running. Basf owns about 73 per cent of the company. In addition, other candidates for sale include the internal combustion automotive catalysts business, parts of the coatings segment, and individual plants in the food additives business. At this time, a BASF spokesperson said it would not comment on individual details regarding market rumors and speculation.
In addition to the business sale plan, Brudermuller is also considering its own succession, and it is reported that Brudermuller will hand over the chairmanship of the Management Board after the annual general meeting at the end of April 2024. He will then take over as chairman of the Supervisory Board of Mercedes-Benz in mid-May.
Insiders told Handelsblatt that the supervisory board of the world's largest chemical company wants to name a successor at the top of the board by December.
The favourite is Markus Kamieth, 53, a board member who runs the important Asian business and is considered a close confidant of Brudermuller; There is also a chance for technical director Melanie Maas-Brunner, 55, who, according to sources, has performed well in the recent restructuring of the main plant in Ludwigshafen.
The "burden reduction" strategy in the post-epidemic era
The long-term downturn in the market has put global chemical companies in new difficulties, in order to cope with this continued uncertainty, the world's large chemical groups are constantly shedding, restructuring and even laying off employees to "reduce the burden" of enterprises.
In April, LANXESS established Envalior, a joint venture with Anhong Capital, to incorporate its high performance materials business and acquire DSM's engineered materials business. Since then, LANXess's main business has been streamlined into three business segments, and the cooperation has brought about 1.27 billion euros in revenue, which directly reduced LANXess's net debt in the second quarter of this year by about a quarter.
From May to August, DuPont acquired Spectrum Group, a supplier of materials and technology for specialty medical devices and components, for $1.75 billion, and sold 80.1% of its Delrin homopholydethylene (H-POM) business to private equity firm TJC for $1.8 billion. Seek new performance growth point through the second signboard strategy.
In September, Evonik is planning a radical restructuring of its global structure, and the management team will also develop a new group management model. Thousands of employees could be affected by the plans. Christian Kullmann, Evonik's chief executive, said that offshoring the bulk chemicals business would not only bring in new money, but also generate additional sales by ploughing revenues into the lucrative, faster-growing specialty chemicals segment.
In September, LyondellBasell announced it had begun consultations with regional unions to manage possible job cuts stemming from the closure of one of its two polypropylene production units in Brindisi, Italy. Lanxess has announced its cost reduction plan and is consulting with employee representatives on the type and scope of job cuts; Covestro has announced the closure of its Swiss sales office.
Divergence leads to a new wave of mergers and acquisitions
The situation of chemical market showing a trend of differentiation is gradually obvious. From the perspective of chemical products market: the global chemical products market is estimated to reach nearly 31.5 trillion yuan in 2022 (excluding oil and gas extraction and oil products); After five shifts in the global chemical industry chain, China, Asia Pacific (except China), Europe and North America, respectively, occupy 43%, 15%, 19% and 11% of the global chemical market.
In the decade 2011-2021, China's share of the global chemicals market increased from 28% to 43%, while North America and Europe are the regions with the fastest relative declines.
From the perspective of the output value growth performance of the top 50 global chemical enterprises in 2019-2022, the European chemical industry is limited by the impact of the energy crisis, while China is in the expansion cycle of large enterprises (the growth of large enterprises in the United States and Japan is relatively stable), with a growth rate of more than 15%.
From the perspective of chemical product production: in 2022, global chemical production will grow by about 2.0%, and in 2023, global chemical production is expected to grow at a rate of 0.6%, and the development of major regions will be differentiated. The American Chemistry Council (ACC) expects global chemical production to increase by 0.6% year over year in 2023, with growth in Asia Pacific, Africa and CIS countries offsetting declines in Europe, North America and Latin America.
With the recovery of global industrial production, the second half of 2023, is expected to see a new wave of mergers and acquisitions in the chemical industry (mergers and acquisitions including mergers, acquisitions and asset divestitures), global chemical companies or will respond to geopolitical turmoil and the global supply chain dispersion of the new business environment, is expected to 2024 global chemical production will achieve a strong growth of 3.5%.
In the next decade, the chemical industry will face a new cycle of change, including:
Accelerating energy transition AI intelligence began to penetrate, and the boundary of chemical industry expanded Global chemical enterprise competitiveness reshaping Green, circular and low-carbon development forms its core competitiveness
