A new company has been formed from the chemicals arm and some of the polymers activities of Bayer AG. LANXESS will begin operating as an independent company at the start of 2005. A completely new company with some 20,000 employees, its own corporate structure and 2003 sales of EUR 6.3 billion (based on the combined financial statements) has been created in record time since the decision was taken to spin off these operations in November 2003. "Activities that were classified as non-core at Bayer are now part of LANXESS’s core business," explains Dr Axel C. Heitmann, Chairman of the Board of Management of LANXESS. LANXESS has four segments: the Performance Rubber segment specialises in solid rubber for the rubber and tire industries; Engineering Plastics focuses on the production of plastics for electrical and electronics appliances, furniture, sports and leisure applications and automotive engineering; the Chemical Intermediates segment comprises basic chemicals, intermediates for the pharmaceuticals and crop protection sectors and inorganic pigments for colouring concrete and coatings; and Performance Chemicals comprises material protection products, processing chemicals for leather, textiles and paper, ion exchange resins, polymer additives such as flame retardants, and manmade fibres.
