Evonik

Evonik Industries AG

Type	Aktiengesellschaft
Traded as	: EVK
Industry	Specialty chemicals
Founded	2007; 10 years ago (2007)
Headquarters	Essen, Germany
Key people	Klaus Engel (CEO, Chairman), Werner Müller (Chairman of the supervisory board)
Products	Chemicals
Revenue	€12.917 billion (2014)
Operating income	€1.238 billion (2014)
Profit	€568 million (2014)
Total assets	€15.685 billion (2014)
Total equity	€15.685 billion (2014)
Number of employees	33,412 (2014)
Website	www.evonik.com

Evonik Industries is an industrial corporation headquartered in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, one of the world's leading specialty chemicals companies, owned by RAG Foundation. It was created on 12 September 2007 as a result of restructuring of the mining and technology group RAG. Evonik Industries united the business areas of chemicals, energy and real estate of RAG, while mining operations continue to be carried out by RAG. Since then, the energy and real estate business areas have been divested, with no share being held in the former and a minority share still being held in the latter. Its specialty chemicals business generates around 80% of sales in areas in which it holds leading market positions. Evonik Industries employs about 33,000 people and carries out activities in more than 100 countries. The operating activities are organized into six business units which are a part of the chemicals business area. Evonik is the main sponsor of German football club Borussia Dortmund.

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 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.