Evonik Industries

Founding of the company

Historically, Evonik Industries' businesses were part of RAG activities. The idea of splitting the company was put forward in 2005. The background of this idea was that RAG's core business of coal mining is carried out under government contract in Germany, while businesses transferred to Evonik compete on international markets. This structure did not permit the payment of dividends to the shareholders, which limited shareholders' readiness to inject equity into the RAG, which thereby restricting the company's ability to access fresh capital. As the first step, RAG’s shareholders sold their shares to RAG foundation (RAG-Stiftung) to split RAG. The Foundation was established on 10 July 2007, and Evonik Industries was created on 12 September 2007.

The original plan foresaw the IPO of Evonik Industries in the first half of 2008. However, this plan was postponed until mid-2010 at the earliest, and the RAG Foundation started to look for strategic investors, while still holding on to the plans for a midterm IPO. In June 2008, the private equity firm CVC Capital Partners bought a stake of 25.01% in the company. Among many other private equity investors who bid for the stake (amongst them Blackstone Group and 3i), Russian Gazprom was reported to have considered buying a stake in Evonik Industries. The IPO, by now planned for fall of 2011, was once again postponed in September 2011, this time citing the "current state of financial and capital markets and their prospects." RAG Foundation had planned for Evonik’s IPO to take place in 2012, but this was postponed as a result of poor market conditions. Evonik shares have been traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since 25 April 2013. Prior to the IPO the company had given institutional investors the opportunity to acquire around 14% of the shares for €2 billion.

Shareholding structure

Since 5 March 2015, the shareholding structure of the Evonik Industries AG is composed as follows:

Historical significance

In 2006, RAG acquired Degussa AG, which was later renamed Evonik-Degussa GmbH. In 1998, Degussa instructed the American historian Peter Hayes to clarify the company history during the Third Reich. One of the former subsidiaries of Degussa, the Degesch (translation: German Corporation for Pest control), was the main manufacturer and distributor of the chemical Zyklon B, which was used to execute people in gas chambers of German concentration camps during the Holocaust. Furthermore, gold dental fillings, which had been forcefully removed from the mouths of concentration-camp inmates, had been processed by Degussa. The historical significance of Degussa appeared again in the publicity surrounding their involvement in the construction of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, because the plasticizer and the anti-graffiti coating were produced by Degussa. Therefore, the work on the memorial was interrupted to clarify the situation. In November 2003, the trustees decided to finish the building with the involvement of Degussa.

Operations

Evonik divested its former holdings in the areas of energy and real estate and now focuses on the core business of specialty chemicals.

Chemicals Business Area

The Chemicals Business Area of Evonik emerged from Evonik Degussa GmbH (formerly Degussa GmbH — an acronym of Deutsche Gold- und Silber-Scheide-Anstalt (German Gold and Silver Separating Works)) based in Essen, Germany. It employs about 34,000 people and is one of the world's largest producers of specialty chemicals. It includes six business units: Advanced Intermediates, Consumer Specialties, Coatings & Additives, Inorganic Materials, Health & Nutrition and Performance Polymers. Degussa was acquired by RAG in 2006. Its latest acquisition is the Tippecanoe Labs plant site at Lafayette, Indiana from Eli Lilly on 1 January 2010. In November, a plant for the production of DL-[Methionine|methionine] was opened in Singapore. At a cost of €500 million, it is the largest investment to date in the chemical sector in the company’s history. In June 2014, the Supervisory Board resolved to restructure the Group, with plans for the six chemical segments to be bundled into three GmbH (limited liability) companies from 2015.

Energy Business Area

The former energy business portion of Evonik was operated through Evonik Steag GmbH (formerly STEAG), which is the fifth largest power company in Germany, based in Essen. The company operates fourteen hard coal-fired power plants, of which eleven are located in Germany, and one in Turkey, one in Colombia and one in the Philippines, and two industrial power plants. It also operates in the field of transport, processing and distribution of hard coal, coke and byproducts from coal processing, as well as in the field of gas supply, transport and trading. In December 2010 Evonik Industries signed an agreement to sell 51% of shares in its energy business to a consortium of municipal utilities in Germany´s Rhine-Ruhr region. The agreement was finalized on 2 March 2011. The remaining 49% were acquired by the consortium for €570 million in August 2014.

Real Estate Business Area

Evonik Immobilien GmbH used to manage around 60,000 company-owned residential units in Germany. In addition, it had a 50% stake in TreuHandStelle GmbH, which manages more than 70,000 residential units. Evonik Immobilien GmbH was amalgamated with TreuHandStelle GmbH and placed on a more independent basis in the medium term. As per the resolution of the general meeting held on 25 November 2011, the name of the subsidiary Evonik Immobilien GmbH was changed to Vivawest GmbH. On 1 January 2012 Vivawest merged with residential management company THS under the name Vivawest. In 2013, Evonik sold the majority of its shares in Vivawest to the RAG Foundation, the Evonik pension fund, and the coal mining corporation RAG AG. Evonik now holds only 10.9%, and there are plans to sell this stake too.

Corporate responsibility

In 2008, Evonik Industries developed its corporate responsibility (CR) strategy as an inherent part of the corporate strategy and corporate culture. Three principles constitute the basic modules of the company´s CR:

Evonik Industries is a member of the United Nations Global Compact. Furthermore, the company is committed to the Responsible Care initiative to constantly improve the company´s performance in health, security, environment and product stewardship. The annual CR report of Evonik Industries is based on the standards of the Global Reporting Initiative.

Sponsorship

2012 Cyclododecatriene plant fire

In March 2012, a fire at the Degussa plant in Marl, stopped production of cyclododecatriene (CDT) for a duration of several months. The plant produced a substantial proportion of the world's production of CDT, particularly that needed to produce laurolactam, a precursor to the polyamide PA12. This shortage in turn led to concerns for global production of finished goods, particularly in the automotive industry. Other biobased polyamides, not dependent on laurolactam or CDT, have been put forward as alternative materials.