The chemicals giant is ratcheting up both shareholder rewards and targeted industrial investment, even as demand uncertainty keeps the broader market on edge. BASF on Wednesday laid out a sweeping reform package that promises €12bn in capital returns to shareholders by 2028, while simultaneously opening a dedicated research centre for refinery catalysts in the US state of Georgia.
At the core of the “Winning Ways” strategy is a deep cost-cutting drive. The group targets a reduction of cash fixed costs in its four main segments — Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions, and Nutrition & Care — by as much as 20% by 2029, measured against the 2024 baseline. Those businesses together generate roughly €40bn in annual sales. To oversee the transformation, CEO Markus Kamieth has installed a new “Core Transformation Office” led by Julia Raquet, who reports directly to him. The company has not yet given concrete headcount reduction figures, but it said organisational complexity will shrink significantly.
Already-running efficiency programmes are delivering: by the end of March, BASF had realised €1.9bn in annualised savings, closing in on the €2.3bn target set for the end of 2026.
On the payout side, the blueprint is equally specific. Of the planned €12bn, roughly €8bn is earmarked for dividends and about €4bn for share buybacks. Management has promised a dividend of €2.25 per share for each of the 2024 and 2025 financial years. The current buyback programme runs until June 2026 and has already scooped up around 25.3m own shares since its launch last November. In the most recent reporting week alone, BASF purchased nearly 4.8m shares, signalling an acceleration as the programme enters its final stretch.
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In parallel, the company is shedding non-core assets. The silicate business at Düsseldorf-Holthausen is being sold to the PQ Corporation, with the proceeds redirected into the core divisions. A more significant event looms in 2027, when BASF plans to list its agricultural chemicals unit — a move seen as key to unlocking capital and further streamlining the group.
Yet even as it tightens the belt, BASF is spending on high-specialisation niches. The new R&D centre in Attapulgus, Georgia, is physically adjacent to what is already the world’s largest production site for fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) catalysts. By locating research and manufacturing side by side, the company aims to drastically shorten the time from lab to commercial output. Refineries are demanding increasingly customised solutions for fuel production depending on feedstock quality, and BASF sees this as a competitive edge worth defending.
The operational environment remains challenging. In the first quarter of 2026, BASF earned roughly €2.4bn in earnings before special items — a result that would have matched the prior-year level had it not been for currency headwinds from the strong US dollar and the Chinese renminbi. For the full year, management is sticking to its guidance of operating profit between €6.2bn and €7.0bn. The next major checkpoint is the second-quarter results, due on 29 July.
Investors have rewarded the stability this year. The stock has gained around 16% since January, though Wednesday saw a modest pullback, with shares trading at roughly €51.16 in late afternoon — a drop of nearly 2% on the day. The Relative Strength Index has climbed to about 84, placing the equity firmly in overbought territory and suggesting the short-term retreat may be technical in nature rather than fundamental.
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