Global chemicals giant BASF is exploring a potential takeover of specialty chemicals company Evonik Industries, a deal that could bring two German suppliers under one owner and significantly reshape the upstream ingredient supply chain.
BASF confirmed on September 25 that it is holding exploratory discussions with Evonik and RAG-Stiftung, Evonik’s largest shareholder, regarding a potential takeover. Evonik said it had received a nonbinding approach from BASF for all of its shares. No offer price or transaction structure has been disclosed, and BASF cautioned that the outcome remains open, according to a company statement.
Any deal would extend far beyond beauty. BASF generated approximately €60 billion ($68 billion) in sales in 2025, while chemicals company Evonik reported €14.1 billion ($16 billion) in sales. Both, however, are significant suppliers to beauty and personal care manufacturers, making a potential combination consequential for the industry’s ingredient supply chain.
BASF’s Nutrition & Care business generated €6.509 billion ($7.4 billion) in sales in 2025 and supplies personal care ingredients spanning surfactants, emulsifiers, emollients, polymers, actives, and UV filters.
Evonik’s Care Solutions business similarly supplies the beauty industry with capabilities and technologies including ceramide, biotech-derived collagen, biosurfactants, actives, and delivery systems. At in-cosmetics Global this year, the company showcased technologies including a glycolipid-ceramide complex and biotech-engineered collagen.
Evonik has also been expanding its beauty R&D footprint internationally. In June, the company opened its first Asia Beauty Science & Innovation Center in Asia, located in Shanghai, to develop ingredients and formulations for Chinese and wider Asian beauty markets.
A takeover could therefore combine BASF’s considerable manufacturing scale and existing personal care business with Evonik’s speciality ingredients and formulation capabilities. How extensively the two beauty portfolios overlap remains unclear.
The talks come amid a difficult operating environment for European chemicals companies, driven by factors including high energy costs, weak domestic demand, and growing competition from China. BASF has been concentrating resources around four core businesses: chemicals, materials, industrial solutions, and nutrition & care, and has explicitly identified industry consolidation as an opportunity for acquisitions.
Evonik, meanwhile, is undergoing a major restructuring as it focuses its portfolio. Days before BASF confirmed its approach, Evonik outlined the next phase of the largest restructuring in its history, including additional divestments and measures to reduce its workforce.
Care is also one of Evonik’s higher-margin businesses. In the second quarter of 2026, the segment generated €271 million ($308 million) in adjusted EBITDA, up 7% year over year, with its adjusted EBITDA margin at 19.1%.
For BASF, Evonik could therefore offer more than additional scale. Its specialty technologies would add to areas BASF has already identified as strategically important. BASF said it evaluates potential acquisitions based on whether they strengthen its core businesses, provide a strong strategic fit, drive profitable growth, and create value.
For beauty companies, a combination would raise questions about both capability and consolidation. BASF and Evonik currently operate as independent suppliers and competitors, with BASF itself listing Evonik as one of its main competitors in the personal care ingredients market.
Bringing the businesses together could expand the ingredient and formulation capabilities available through a single supplier, while reducing the number of independent companies competing in areas where their portfolios overlap. The extent of that overlap, and therefore the competitive implications for beauty customers, cannot yet be determined.
RAG-Stiftung, which owns approximately 44% of Evonik, is participating in the exploratory discussion. Neither BASF nor Evonik has disclosed a timetable for determining whether they will progress.
The talks nevertheless put upstream consolidation on beauty’s radar. Mergers and acquisitions are most visible when conglomerates acquire finished brands, but consolidation among ingredient suppliers can also determine who controls the technologies and R&D capabilities behind those products.
If BASF ultimately acquires Evonik, the questions for the beauty industry will be which of those capabilities it considers strategically valuable, and how much of the industry’s ingredient innovation could ultimately sit under the same roof.