BASF swallows Ciba for £3bn

Swiss chemicals group Ciba has fallen to a 3.8 billion (£3 billion) takeover from industry-leading German giant BASF.

Announcing the deal, BASF said it
was "strengthening its portfolio and expanding its leading position in specialty chemicals with products and services for a varierty of customer industries, in particular the plastics and coatings industries as well as water treatment".

The fall of Ciba to a rival in an industry in consolidation — Britain's flagship chemicals company ICA fell to Dutch group Akzo-Nobel last year — became increasingly inevitible after the company posted a loss of around £300 million for the second quarter.

Analysts have said that Ciba has been hobbled by a poor acquisitions strategy in recent years as it struggled in a business which has been hit by rising costs — especially oil and petrochemicals — just as the competition from Asia and the Middle East gets ever stronger.