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World's largest chemical company, making basic and specialty chemicals, plastics, agricultural products and coatings.
World's largest chemical company, making basic and specialty chemicals, plastics, agricultural products and coatings.
Sells bulk chemicals to industry at prices that follow raw-material costs and demand cycles, while crop protection and coatings sell branded products on steadier terms. Its Verbund system lets plants feed one another's by-products as raw materials. It has been building a large new site in Zhanjiang, China, and has said it will ready the agriculture arm for a stock-market listing by 2027.
In one line: Germany's Dow/DuPont.
Moat: narrow (scale, cost advantage, process know-how). Integrated 'Verbund' production sites lower costs, but commodity chemicals are cyclical and capital intensive.
Headquarters: Ludwigshafen, Germany · Founded: 1865 · Employees: 108,251
Size Basf (BAS.DE) is a Germany Materials company (Chemicals: Specialty) with a market value of $52.6B, the 15th largest of 205 Germany companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at €54.28 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 1.7%, against -0.5% for the median peer and +2.6% for the Germany market (cap-weighted) — 7th highest of 16 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue fell 3.9% over the last twelve months (peer median +4.5%); the operating margin is 7.0% (peer median 18.3%).
Valuation It trades at 16.8× forward earnings against a peer median of 21.2× (6th cheapest of 16).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 6% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is 0%, so the hurdle is +6 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 0.9 points below its cost of capital (6.5% WACC).
Credit Basf has 15 bonds outstanding ($9.36B), rated A- by the agencies and trading like AA at a weighted spread of 68 bp.
Next results Next results expected around 26 Feb 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | €63.6B | €59.7B | €61.4B | €68.9B | €87.3B |
| Revenue growth | — | -3% | -11% | -21% | — |
| Gross profit | €15.1B | €14.2B | €15.1B | €16.6B | €21.0B |
| EBITDA | €8.32B | €6.26B | €7.12B | €7.34B | €10.6B |
| Net income | €5.79B | €1.62B | €1.30B | €225M | -€627M |
| Free cash flow | €1.17B | €1.34B | €748M | €2.72B | €3.33B |
| Capital expenditure | €3.29B | €4.27B | €6.20B | €5.39B | €4.38B |
| Total debt | €20.8B | €23.2B | €24.0B | €21.3B | €20.9B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basf BAS.DE | $52.6B | +2% | -4% | 7% | 16.8× | 5.7% |
| Dow DOW | $22.7B | -14% | +4% | 5% | 14.8× | 4.3% |
| DuPont DD | $19.4B | -1% | -43% | 14% | 18.3× | 14.7% |
| Bayer BAYN.DE | $61.2B | +46% | -2% | 14% | 12.3× | 2.1% |
| Covestro 1COV.DE | $14.0B | 0% | -9% | -3% | 200.3× | n/a |
| LyondellBasell LYB | $19.6B | -15% | -2% | 10% | 9.5× | -10.3% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | BAS.DE | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +4.8% | +1.3% | 8th highest of 16 |
| 6-month return | +1.7% | -0.5% | 7th highest of 16 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -4.0% | -14.3% | 3rd highest of 16 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | -3.9% | +4.5% | 3rd lowest of 16 |
| Operating margin | 7.0% | 18.3% | 3rd lowest of 16 |
| Forward P/E | 16.8× | 21.2× | 6th cheapest of 16 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 5.7% | 8.1% | 6th least demanding of 14 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +0.2% | +7.0% | lowest of 14 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +5.6 pp | -2.5 pp | 5th most demanding of 14 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | -0.9 pp | +1.9 pp | 4th lowest of 16 |
| EV / EBITDA | 7.8× | 16.3× | 3rd cheapest of 12 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 2.0× | 2.0× | 7th least indebted of 13 |
| Bond spread | 68 bp | 91 bp | 4th tightest of 10 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basf BAS.DE | Germany | $52.6B | +2% | -4% | 7% | 16.8× | 5.7% | +0.2% |
| Shin-etsu Chemical 4063.T | Japan | $66.5B | -27% | +5% | 25% | 17.2× | 8.9% | +11.4% |
| Air Products APD | United States | $67.9B | +4% | +5% | 24% | 21.2× | n/a | n/a |
| Ecolab ECL | United States | $84.3B | +19% | +9% | 18% | 33.6× | 19.7% | +6.4% |
| Novonesis A/S NSIS-B.CO | Denmark | $32.1B | +22% | +5% | 21% | 30.0× | 13.2% | +17.2% |
| Ems-chemie EMSN.SW | Switzerland | $24.3B | +28% | -3% | 30% | 39.4× | 8.6% | +1.6% |
| Ningxia Baofeng Energy 600989.SS | China | $23.4B | -31% | +35% | 35% | 8.4× | -7.8% | +24.8% |
| Dow DOW | United States | $22.7B | -14% | +4% | 5% | 14.8× | 4.3% | +0.7% |
| Air Liquide AI.PA | France | $134B | +15% | -1% | 21% | 29.0× | 18.1% | +5.6% |
| LyondellBasell LYB | United States | $19.6B | -15% | -2% | 10% | 9.5× | -10.3% | +1.7% |
| China Northern Rare Earth (Group) High-Tech 600111.SS | China | $19.6B | -31% | +29% | 11% | 28.5× | 24.6% | +14.2% |
| Hengli Petrochemical 600346.SS | China | $17.5B | -25% | -8% | 8% | 9.2× | -8.0% | +5.1% |
| Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A. Sponsored ADR Pfd Series B SQM | United States | $16.0B | -37% | +59% | 39% | 7.3× | -4.8% | +20.1% |
| Nippon Sanso 4091.T | Japan | $15.3B | +1% | +10% | 15% | 16.9× | 7.8% | +10.7% |
| Symrise SY1.DE | Germany | $15.1B | +30% | -1% | 12% | 24.8× | 8.1% | +7.0% |
| Covestro 1COV.DE | Germany | $14.0B | 0% | -9% | -3% | 200.3× | n/a | n/a |
Basf has 15 bonds outstanding with $9.36B face value. The agencies rate it A-; its bonds trade like AA. Weighted yield 3.75%, a spread of 68 bp over government bonds.