Fresh mix of staff for chemical firm BASF

BASF anointed Martin Brudermüller as its next chief executive, setting in motion a changing of the guard at Europe’s biggest chemical maker, which has only dabbled from the sidelines of an unprecedented wave of global deal-making in the industry.

Brudermüller, BASF’s 56-year-old chief technology officer who previously ran its Asian operations, will replace Kurt Bock in May, the Ludwigshafen, Germany-based company said in a statement yesterday. Bock, 59, joins the supervisory board, and is slated to become chairperson in two years.

The management overhaul comes as BASF undertakes a pair of transactions that will partly transform the risk-adverse German manufacturer.

It agreed this month to combine its oil-and-gas unit with the energy company controlled by Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman, and in October sealed a deal to buy part of Bayer AG’s agricultural products business, expanding into genetically modified seeds for the first time.

BASF has otherwise mostly stayed out of a series of mergers and acquisitions in the global farm and specialty chemicals sector.

The shares have gained about 36 percent since Bock took the helm in May 2011, nearly matching the 38 percent advance of the Stoxx Europe 600 Index. They were little changed yesterday at €92.72.

ASF called the move part of “long-term succession planning” and it follows a well-rehearsed path.

Bock was previously finance director and his planned move to the chairmanship of the supervisory board also has precedent at the century-and-ahalf old company. Hans-Ulrich Engel will become deputy chief executive and remain head of finance. Changes will include reducing the executive board to seven from eight. – Bloomberg