{{Infobox company , name = Evonik Industries AG , logo = Logo Evonik 2020.svg , image = RellingHaus II, Essen.jpg , image_caption = Evonik's headquarters in

Essen Essen () is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as ...

, Germany , type =

Aktiengesellschaft (; abbreviated AG ) is a German language, German word for a corporation limited by Share (finance), share ownership (i.e., one which is owned by its shareholders) whose shares may be traded on a stock market. The term is used in Germany, Austria ...

, traded_as = {{Frankfurt Stock Exchange, EVK
MDAX Component , industry =

Specialty chemicals Specialty chemicals (also called specialties or effect chemicals) are particular chemical products that provide a wide variety of effects on which many other industry sectors rely. Some of the categories of speciality chemicals are adhesives, agr ...

, key_people = {{plainlist , * Christian Kullmann {{small, (CEO, Chairman) * Bernd Tönjes (

Chairman The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...

of the supervisory board) , products = Chemicals , revenue = {{Decrease €15.2 billion (2024){{cite web , url= https://www.evonik.com/en/investor-relations/Reporting.html#tabs-b118b10b7a-item-2d4ab0c2ad-tab , title=Evonik Financial Report 2024 , publisher=

Evonik Industries AG , products = Chemicals , revenue = {{Decrease €15.2 billion (2024){{cite web , url= https://www.evonik.com/en/investor-relations/Reporting.html#tabs-b118b10b7a-item-2d4ab0c2ad-tab , title=Evonik Financial Report 2024 , publisher=Evonik Industri ...

, access-date=1 April 2025 , net_income = {{Decrease €222 million (2024) , num_employees = 31,930 (2024) , foundation = {{start date and age, df=yes, 2007 , location =

, Germany , homepage = www.evonik.c

Evonik Industries AG is a publicly-listed German specialty Chemical substance, chemicals company headquartered in

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

, Germany. It is the second-largest chemicals company in Germany, and one of the largest specialty chemicals companies in the world. It is predominantly owned by the RAG Foundation and was founded on 12 September 2007 as a result of

restructuring Restructuring or Reframing is the corporate management term for the act of reorganizing the legal, ownership, operational, or other structures of a company for the purpose of making it more profitable, or better organized for its present needs. ...

of the mining and technology group

RAG AG RAG AG, formerly Ruhrkohle AG, is the largest German coal mining corporation. The company headquarters are in Essen in the Ruhr area. The company was founded on 27 November 1968, consolidating several coal mining corporations into the Ruhrkohl ...

. Evonik Industries united the business areas of chemicals,

energy Energy () is the physical quantity, quantitative physical property, property that is transferred to a physical body, body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of Work (thermodynamics), work and in the form of heat and l ...

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 where it holds leading market positions. Evonik Industries employs about 32,000 people and carries out activities in more than 100 countries. The operating activities are organized into six business units that are a part of the chemicals business area. Evonik is the main sponsor of the German

football club In association football, a football club (or association football club, alternatively soccer club) is a sports club that acts as an entity through which association football teams organise their sporting activities. The club can exist either as ...

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...

. In 2022, Evonik's surfactant and specialty esters operations were acquired by Kensing.

History

World War II and involvement in the Holocaust

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, one of Degussa's ''(Deutsche Gold- und Silber-Scheide-Anstalt,'' "German Gold and Silver Refining") subsidiaries,

Degesch The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Schädlingsbekämpfung mbH (), often shortened to Degesch, was a German chemical corporation which manufactured pesticides. Degesch held the patent on the infamous pesticide Zyklon, a variant of which was used to ex ...

(translation: German Corporation for Pest Control), was the main manufacturer and distributor of the chemical

Zyklon B Zyklon B (; translated Cyclone B) was the trade name of a cyanide-based pesticide invented in Germany in the early 1920s. It consists of hydrogen cyanide (prussic acid), as well as a cautionary eye irritant and one of several adsorbents such ...

, which was used to murder people in gas chambers of German extermination and concentration camps during

The Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

.{{cite journal , url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/hgs/summary/v019/19.3wiesen.html , title=From Cooperation to Complicity: Degussa in the Third Reich , journal=Holocaust and Genocide Studies , volume=19 , issue=3 , pages=528–531 , date=16 November 2005 , last1=Wiesen , first1=S. Jonathan , doi=10.1093/hgs/dci047 , url-access=subscription Gold dental fillings, which had been forcefully removed from the mouths of concentration-camp inmates, were processed by Degussa. The company's partnership

Deutsche Gasrusswerke Deutsch ( , ) or Deutsche ( , ) may refer to: * or : the German language or in particular Standard German, spoken in central European countries and other places *Old High German language refers to Deutsch as a way to define the primary characteris ...

(DGW) employed Jewish slave laborers at the

Gleiwitz concentration camp Gliwice (; , ) is a city in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland. The city is located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Kłodnica river (a tributary of the Oder River, Oder). It lies approximately 25 km west from Katowice, the regional capital ...

, a subcamp of Auschwitz. Degussa estimated its war losses at 111 million

Reichsmark The (; sign: ℛ︁ℳ︁; abbreviation: RM) was the currency of Germany from 1924 until the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945, and in the American, British and French occupied zones of Germany, until 20 June 1948. The Reichsmark was then replace ...

, almost

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

0.5 billion in 2012 dollars. While constructing the

Holocaust Memorial A number of organizations, museums and monuments are intended to serve as memorials to the Holocaust, the Nazi Final Solution, and its millions of victims. Memorials and museums listed by country: __NOTOC__ A - D: AlbaniaArgentinaAustraliaAustr ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, it became public that the

plasticizer A plasticizer ( UK: plasticiser) is a substance that is added to a material to make it softer and more flexible, to increase its plasticity, to decrease its viscosity, and/or to decrease friction during its handling in manufacture. Plasticizer ...

and the

anti-graffiti coating An anti-graffiti coating is a coating that prevents graffiti paint from bonding to surfaces. Cleaning graffiti off buildings costs billions of dollars annually. Many cities have started anti-graffiti programs but vandalism is still a problem. Comp ...

of the memorial were produced by Degussa, resulting in a pause of the construction works until the matter was clarified. In November 2003, the memorial's trustees decided to finish the building with the involvement of Degussa.

After World War II

In 2006, RAG acquired Degussa AG, which was later renamed Evonik-Degussa GmbH. 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 Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

is carried out under government contract in Germany, while businesses transferred to Evonik compete in 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 restricted 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 An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

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. {{cite news , url = https://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2008/06/12/afx5107870.html , title = RAG may sell more Evonik shares to individual investor prior to IPO – Evonik CEO , work =

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

, date = 12 June 2008 , access-date = 11 July 2008, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110805000846/http://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2008/06/12/afx5107870.html, archive-date=5 August 2011 {{cite news , url = https://www.reuters.com/article/rbssFinancialServicesAndRealEstateNews/idUSL0120193720080401 , title = Evonik says owners drop IPO plans for now , publisher =

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

, author=Eva Kühnen , date = 1 April 2008 , access-date = 11 July 2008 In June 2008, the private equity firm

CVC Capital Partners CVC Capital Partners plc is a Jersey-based private equity and investment advisory firm with approximately €186 billion of assets under management and approximately €157 billion in secured commitments since inception across American, European, ...

bought a stake of 25.01% in the company. {{cite news , url = https://www.reuters.com/article/privateEquity/idUSL0383147420080603 , title = CVC to pay 2.4 bln eur for Evonik stake-sources , publisher =

, author=Matthias Inverardi , author2=Philipp Halstrick , date = 3 June 2008 , access-date = 11 July 2008 Among many other private equity investors who bid for the stake (amongst them

Blackstone Group Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. It was founded in 1985 as a mergers and acquisitions firm by Peter Peterson and Stephen Schwarzman, who had previously worked together at Lehman ...

and 3i), Russian

Gazprom PJSC Gazprom ( rus, Газпром, , ɡɐsˈprom) is a Russian State-owned enterprise, majority state-owned multinational Energy industry, energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. The Gazprom name is a contract ...

was reported to have considered buying a stake in Evonik Industries. {{cite news , url = https://www.reuters.com/article/rbssEnergyNews/idUSL1175446220080611 , title = Russia's Gazprom says gas prices to keep rising , publisher =

, author=Peter Dinkloh , date = 11 June 2008 , access-date = 11 July 2008 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." {{cite news , url=http://www.reuters.com/article/evonik-ipo-idUSL5E7KN2YE20110923 , archive-url=https://archive.today/20130201043857/http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/23/evonik-ipo-idUSL5E7KN2YE20110923 , archive-date=1 February 2013 , title=Germany's Evonik postpones IPO on weak markets , publisher=

, author=Matthias Inverardi , date=23 September 2011 , access-date=23 September 2011 , url-status=live 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 The Frankfurt Stock Exchange (, former German name: , ''FWB'') is the world's 3rd oldest and 12th largest stock exchange by market capitalization. It has operations from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm ( German time). Organisation Located in Frankfurt, ...

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. Since 5 March 2015, the shareholding structure of the Evonik Industries AG is composed as follows: * 67,9%: RAG Foundation * 14,0%: Gabriel Acquisitions GmbH (a company owned by funds advised by

) * 18,1%: Free float

2012 cyclododecatriene plant fire

In March 2012, a fire at the Degussa plant in

Marl Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, Clay minerals, clays, and silt. When Lithification, hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae. M ...

,{{Cite web , title=Fire at the CDT plant on the grounds of the Marl Chemicals Park , website=Press Release , publisher= Evonik Industries , date=4 April 2012 , url=http://www.vestamid.com/product/vestamid/en/about/downloads/press-releases/pages/details.aspx?newsid=26363 stopped production of

cyclododecatriene Cyclododecatrienes are cyclic trienes with the formula C12H18. Four isomers are known for 1,5,9-cyclododecatriene. The ''trans'',''trans'',''cis''-isomer is a precursor in the production of nylon-12. : Production The ''trans'',''trans'',''cis'' ...

(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 Laurolactam is an organic compound from the group of macrocyclic lactams. Laurolactam is mainly used as a monomer in engineering plastics, such as nylon-12 and copolyamides.T. Schiffer, G. Oenbrink: ''Cyclododecanol, Cyclododecanone, and Laurolact ...

, a precursor to the

polyamide A polyamide is a polymer with repeating units linked by amide bonds. Polyamides occur both naturally and artificially. Examples of naturally occurring polyamides are proteins, such as wool and silk. Artificially made polyamides can be made throug ...

PA12. This shortage in turn led to concerns for global production of finished goods, particularly in the automotive industry. Biobased polyamides, not dependent on laurolactam or CDT, have been put forward as alternative materials.

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

, Germany. It employs about 34,000{{cite web , url=http://corporate.evonik.com/en/company/facts-figures/pages/default.aspx , title=Facts & figures 2010 , access-date=25 May 2011 , publisher=Evonik , archive-date=28 May 2011 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110528172223/http://corporate.evonik.com/en/company/facts-figures/pages/default.aspx , url-status=dead 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 Lafayette ( ) is a city in and is the county seat of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, located northwest of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. According to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of Lafayette ...

from

Eli Lilly Eli Lilly (July 8, 1838 – June 6, 1898) was a Union Army officer, pharmacist, chemist, and businessman who founded Eli Lilly and Company. Lilly enlisted in the Union Army during the American Civil War and recruited a company of men to ...

on 1 January 2010. In November, a plant for the production of DL-

methionine Methionine (symbol Met or M) () is an essential amino acid in humans. As the precursor of other non-essential amino acids such as cysteine and taurine, versatile compounds such as SAM-e, and the important antioxidant glutathione, methionine play ...

was opened in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

. 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

. The company operates fourteen

hard coal Anthracite, also known as hard coal and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a submetallic lustre. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy density of all types of coal and is the highe ...

-fired power plants, of which eleven are located in Germany, and one in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, one in

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

and one in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, 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 The Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region () is the Metropolitan regions in Germany, largest metropolitan region in Germany, with over ten million inhabitants. A wikt:polycentric, polycentric conurbation with several major urban concentrations, the reg ...

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.

Sponsorship

* Evonik has been the main shirt sponsor of

(BVB) since the 2007/2008 season. Beginning with the 2020/2021 season, Evonik will be the shirt sponsor for only international events. * Evonik was one of the sponsors of the

World Chess Championship 2008 The World Chess Championship 2008 was a best-of-twelve-games match between the incumbent World Chess Champion, Viswanathan Anand, and the previous World Champion, Vladimir Kramnik. Kramnik had been granted a match after not winning the World Che ...

* On 17 May 2011, as part of a charity football match between Borussia Dortmund and an all-star team from Japan, Evonik donated €1 million to a children's home situated in the Tohoku/Ichinoseki-shi earthquake zone which was destroyed by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. * Evonik is the main sponsor of the Rebikoff-Niggeler Foundation, a non-profit organization which conducts deep-sea research in the Azores using a submersible.{{Cite web , title=Evonik supports the exploration of the deep sea - Evonik Industries , url=https://corporate.evonik.com/en/media/press-releases/corporate/evonik-supports-the-exploration-of-the-deep-sea-101177.html , access-date=2022-08-02 , website=corporate.evonik.com , language=en

References

{{Reflist

External links

Evonik Industries website
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090626222203/http://corporate.evonik.com/en/index.html , date=26 June 2009 {{Authority control Electric power companies of Germany Companies based in Essen Chemical companies of Germany CVC Capital Partners companies Companies involved in the Holocaust German companies established in 1873 Multinational companies headquartered in Germany Companies in the MDAX