Houlihan Lokey Advises BASF SE

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that BASF SE (BASF) has sold its base metal catalyst production site in De Meern, Netherlands, to IQatalyst BV (IQatalyst), a newly formed entity wholly owned by ASC Investment SARL (ASC). The transaction closed on August 31, 2023

BASF is a German multinational chemical company and the largest chemical producer in the world. The group’s portfolio operates in the chemicals, materials, industrial solutions, surface technologies, nutrition an care, and agricultural solutions segments.

Headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany, BASF generated revenues of more than €87 billion in 2022 and employs approximately 111,000 people.

The De Meern is a catalyst production site is located in Utrecht, Netherlands. IQatalyst serves the chemicals, food, oil refining, fine chemicals, and pharma markets and has differentiated capabilities in the development, scale-up, and custom manufacturing of catalysts. The site consists of state-of-the-art development and production facilities, including a multipurpose catalyst manufacturing plant, a fats and oils catalysts (FOCAT) plant, and a Fischer-Tropsch catalyst plant. IQatalyst is a technology leader in base metal catalysts with superior R&D capabilities and an impressive track record of product innovations.

ASC Investment is an industrial holding group based in Luxembourg and Munich, focusing on carve-out transactions from large corporations and succession situations in Europe.

Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive sellside advisor to BASF. The firm assisted BASF in structuring the process and negotiating this carve-out transaction, highlighting Houlihan Lokey’s expertise and continued success in the chemicals sector and its track record of successful carve-outs for global corporations.