BASF lifts Evonik bid to €24 per share as Evonik courts Ashland

BASF has raised its offer for Evonik to €24 per share, up from an initial bid of roughly €22.15, valuing the specialty chemicals maker at approximately €11.18 billion ($12.5 billion), according to Reuters. Evonik rejected the first offer — around €10.3 billion — as too low.

The bid battle unfolds as a second front opens. German business newspaper Handelsblatt reports that Evonik is eyeing a takeover of US personal care ingredients maker Ashland, aiming to reduce its dependence on the European market.

Who is advising Evonik on the Ashland move?

Handelsblatt, citing sources, says Evonik has hired investment banks Perella Weinberg Partners and JP Morgan to scout the market for suitable targets. Ashland sits on that list.

Ashland is no stranger to sale speculation. In August, the New York Stock Exchange-listed ingredients maker was reported to be exploring a potential sale after attracting takeover interest from several private equity companies. It appointed Citigroup and Lazard as advisers while weighing approaches from Advent, Apollo Global Management, Carlyle Group and Standard Industries.

For formulators and procurement teams, Ashland's product portfolio — spanning personal care polymers, rheology modifiers and conditioning agents used across skin care and hair care formulations — makes any change of ownership a supply-chain event worth tracking. A buyer like Evonik could reshape pricing structures and distribution priorities for widely used INCI-listed ingredients.

Is the Ashland interest defensive?

Handelsblatt's sources deny it. They insist a possible Ashland acquisition is not a defensive move against Evonik itself becoming a takeover target for BASF. Evonik's review of Ashland, the sources said, began well before BASF made its approach.

That timeline matters. If Evonik pursued Ashland as a strategic diversification play before any BASF interest, the company can argue its expansion logic stands independently of the German rival's advances — and that it retains strategic initiative despite being a bid target.

The geographic rationale is concrete: acquiring Ashland would reduce Evonik's exposure to the European market, where chemical demand and energy costs have pressured margins. Ashland's US base and North American customer network would give Evonik a broader footing.

What does BASF's raised offer signal?

The increase from about €22.15 to €24 per share — a jump of roughly 8.4% — signals BASF's willingness to pay for scale in specialty chemicals. The €11.18 billion valuation compares with the roughly €10.3 billion Evonik board rejected as insufficient.

BASF has also moved to address workforce concerns. The company said it would honour existing agreements to preserve jobs made by Evonik in the event of an acquisition.

"Any potential takeover of Evonik must be judged on the basis of the prospects it opens up for the companies, their sites and, above all, for the workforce," Sinischa Horvat, works council chairman at BASF, said in a statement.

The jobs commitment follows the pattern of German labor co-determination, where works councils hold real influence over merger outcomes. Horvat's framing — prospects for companies, sites and workforce, in that order — sets the criteria labor representatives will apply to any final deal.

What comes next for the three-way dynamic?

Three scenarios now run in parallel:

• BASF may sweeten its €24 per share offer further, or take the bid public to pressure Evonik's board.
• Evonik may pursue Ashland as a standalone growth move, complicating any BASF integration plan and potentially triggering antitrust review of overlapping ingredient portfolios.
• Private equity suitors — Advent, Apollo, Carlyle and Standard Industries — may return for Ashland if Evonik's interest does not convert into a firm offer.

For ingredient buyers, the watch items are concrete: whether Evonik's advisers at Perella Weinberg and JP Morgan advance formal talks with Ashland's Citigroup and Lazard advisers, whether BASF revises its €11.18 billion valuation again, and how German works councils react to the next offer. The next data point to watch is any formal filing or confirmed bid — either BASF's third move for Evonik or Evonik's first concrete step toward Ashland.