BASF Acquires Degussa Construction Chemicals to Create New Innovative PotentialsBASF acquired the global construction chemicals business of Degussa, with effect from 30th June, 2006 and operates the newly acquired business under the name BASF Construction Chemicals since 1st August, 2006. Read E-News Weekly 10/2006, 8/2006 & 2/2006. Accounting for approximately 10% of global sales, the construction industry is already one of BASF's main client industries today. The acquisition allows BASF to explore the growth potentials of the construction chemicals market on a sustainable basis and to reinforce and expand on its position in this working area.The combination of BASF's own chemical expertise with the applications know-how of the newly acquired Degussa Construction Chemicals creates complete value chain, which will result in the optimization of all processes geared toward developing new solutions. On this basis, BASF will continue in future to offer its customers innovative top-end solutions and an extensive range of products and services, with the aim of helping them to become even more successful in a fiercely competitive environment. The top priority is to make sure that the integration of the new business into BASF proceeds as smoothly as possible. There will be no change for the time being in business processes and customers will be dealing with the same contacts in sales, applications technology, customer service and other commercial and technical areas.As far as UGC is concerned, BASF can assure the industry that its support in the underground construction and mining businesses will remain unchanged. The company will be offering further innovative and effective solutions that will give customers the competitive edge. The underground division in BASF is called UGC, with a specialist global technical and product development team referred to as UGC International. This name is reflected in the new logo. Visit www.ugc.basf.com and www.construction-chemicals.basf.com 35/06.