BASF Raises Its Evonik Offer to About €24 a Share, Reports Say

BASF has sweetened its bid for fellow German chemicals maker Evonik Industries, raising the price to about €24 a share in a proposal worth about €11.18 billion ($12.51 billion), two people close to the deal told Reuters on Friday, Oct. 23, a month after Evonik turned away a lower approach as too low.

The offer, increased from an original bid of about €22.15 a share, was put to Evonik's management, people familiar with the negotiations told Reuters' German-language service, and BASF hopes the higher price will now bring management into takeover talks. BASF had previously made management talks and access to Evonik's books a condition of raising its bid, and a second insider said the new offer would be reviewed. Bloomberg News first reported the increase on Friday, to more than €11 billion. Neither side has confirmed any of it: Evonik declined to comment, as did its largest shareholder, the RAG Foundation, and BASF's spokespeople also declined to comment. Deliberations remain ongoing, and a final transaction is not guaranteed.

The market repriced the target before either boardroom spoke

Evonik's shares jumped as much as 5.2% on Friday, a move sharp enough to trigger a temporary volatility halt, and at 1:11 p.m. in Frankfurt they were trading at €20.86, which valued the company at about €9.7 billion at that moment. The shares closed 2.7% higher at €21.26, still well below the reported offer, while BASF's shares rose 0.15%. The reported €24 a share is about 8% above the €22.15 Evonik rejected, on a TickerGrove calculation, and the reporting puts it at a roughly 38% premium over Evonik's closing price before the first reports of BASF's interest in September. The gap between Friday's close and the reported price is the market's own verdict so far: investors are pricing a warmer reception, not an agreed deal.

The harder negotiation is in Essen, not Ludwigshafen

Price alone may not settle this. The RAG Foundation holds 43% of Evonik, its board of trustees is shaped by politicians and trade unions, and its approval is considered key to whether a takeover goes through. So far the foundation has referred BASF to Evonik's management for negotiations and declined to comment on the raised offer. The government of North Rhine-Westphalia, the state where Evonik is based, said earlier this month that a takeover must not put Evonik's jobs, or its future as an independent company, at risk.

BASF has been courting that audience all week. Chief executive Markus Kamieth spoke publicly about the Evonik plans for the first time on Thursday, in a video message calling the takeover “a strong German response to global competition,” committing BASF to no compulsory layoffs through 2032 and to honoring all collective bargaining agreements. BASF said the same day it would honor the existing agreements Evonik has made to preserve jobs, and warned that Evonik could face harsher approaches from foreign buyers. From the buyer's own side, works council chairman Sinischa Horvat set a condition in a statement: BASF's existing site agreement “must not be called into question by a potential takeover, nor must it be undermined by its financing or the resulting costs.” Kamieth's statement, as BASF itself was careful to note, does not constitute an offer — for now the promises are a pitch, not transaction terms.

Evonik has a shopping list of its own

Evonik, meanwhile, has been pursuing an acquisition of its own. Its interest in the US specialty chemicals company Ashland, valued at about $3.3 billion, surfaced a day before the raised offer — although that interest began before BASF launched its takeover bid, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters. BASF, for its part, sees an Evonik purchase of Ashland as too risky, a source close to the matter said, while Evonik has assured insiders the pursuit is not a defensive “poison pill.” Evonik is also in the middle of a far-reaching restructuring in which thousands of jobs could be eliminated by 2029 — one reason the job guarantees attached to BASF's proposal carry political weight well beyond the two companies.

What to watch next

What to watch next is whether Evonik's management agrees to the talks BASF is asking for, whether the RAG Foundation breaks its silence, and whether either company confirms the reported terms. Any combination would also face antitrust review: in some specialty chemicals markets, BASF and Evonik together frequently hold more than 50% of the global market, an expert cited by ZDF noted, which would make a cartel review pivotal. Evonik's next scheduled corporate update is its third-quarter statement on Nov. 3, 2026. Until a company speaks, the €24 figure is a reported proposal, not an announced offer, and nothing about a deal has been agreed.