Altana
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- Matthias L. Wolf Gruber, CEO
- Klaus -Jürgen Schmieder, Chairman
ALTANA AG is a German chemical company with headquarters in Wesel, which was created by the divestiture of business units from the VARTA Group 1977. The first chairman was Herbert Quandt.
The Group is divided into the areas of BYK ( Coating Additives & Instruments ), Eckart ( metallic effect pigments and metallic printing inks ), ELANTAS ( insulating materials for the electrical industry ) and ACTEGA ( coatings and sealants for the packaging industry ).
The Group has 42 production facilities in March 2013 and more than 50 service and research laboratories worldwide. In 2012, the company achieved sales of around 1.7 billion Euro with approximately 5,360 employees.
History
From 1977 to August 2010, the company was listed on the German stock exchange in Frankfurt am Main. From 2002 to 2007 Altana was also listed on the New York Stock Exchange for trading.
On 19 December 2006, the majority of shareholders approved the sale of the pharmaceuticals division of the Danish company Nycomed. Nycomed is owned by an investor consortium, led by Nordic Capital and Credit Suisse. With the sale of the pharmaceuticals business based in Konstanz Altana AG announced an important foothold. 9000 of the approximately 13,500 Group employees worked at Altana in the pharmaceutical division. They generated about two-thirds of total sales. In fact, the reported sales declined in 2006 by around 60 percent, but rose again in 2007 by more than six percent.
The patent for the main source of revenue pantoprazole of the former pharmaceutical division ran out in 2009 /2010. While the Board of Altana justified the levy of the pharmaceutical business with delays in the approval of new products, increased research and development costs as well as high requirements of the regulatory authorities in the U.S. and Europe, representing Aktionaersschuetzer the opinion that the board had in previous years in to a small extent invested in the pharmaceutical division, nor in time can develop follow-on products in order to absorb as the predictable loss of revenue due to the expiration of the patent on pantoprazole end of the decade can.
The selling price of the pharmaceutical division stood at 4.6 billion euros. This capital gain has been completely distributed to the shareholders, who received a special dividend of 33 euros per share. There was criticism that the majority shareholder from the sale of the pharmaceuticals business, benefit the most.
Until 1 January 2007, the Group (formerly Byk Gulden Lomberg Chemische Fabrik GmbH) was divided into the pharmaceutical business Altana Pharma AG, headquartered in Konstanz and in the specialty chemicals division Altana Chemie AG with headquarters in Wesel. Since the sale of the pharmaceuticals business to Nycomed Altana AG operates exclusively in specialty chemicals. This grouping also changed the company logo, which was passed on to all subsidiaries ( BYK, Eckart, ELANTAS, ACTEGA ).
On 6 November 2008, the main shareholder SKion GMBH announced a public takeover bid in the amount of EUR 13 per share for all outstanding shares what price recovered. According to a company spokesman was planned to take the company from the stock market trading. For SKion GmbH made the remaining shareholders on 9 November 2009 a second takeover bid of 14 euros per share.
On 30 December 2008, the German Stock Exchange announced that Altana unscheduled resigns with effect from January 6, 2009 from the MDAX since the floating stock had fallen below ten percent by increasing the proportion of SKion. In June 2010, SKion GmbH 95.04 % of ALTANA shares held.
The stock was trading in Germany mainly on the stock exchanges of Frankfurt and Stuttgart, as well as in XETRA, she was internationally on the London Stock Exchange and the NASD Group (now FINRA ) approved in the United States.
Following the acquisition of Altana AG as part of a so-called squeeze-out by the " SKion GmbH", the listing of the shares was adjusted with effect from 27 August 2010.
Products
The specialty chemicals manufacturer offers various solutions, along with the matching specialty products for coating manufactures, paint and plastic processors, the printing and cosmetic industries and for the electrical industry. The product range includes additives, special coatings and adhesives, effect pigments, metallic inks, sealants and compounds, impregnating agents, and test and measurement instruments.