BASF Names New CEO from 2018

German chemicals giant BASF has announced who will run the company from next year, before it spins off its upstream business.

Deputy CEO Martin Brudermuller will succeed CEO Kurt Bock in May, while Bock has been proposed as the next chairman of BASF's supervisory board.

Hans-Ulrich Engel will remain as chief finance officer, but also assume the rank of deputy CEO, and the management board will consist of seven instead of eight members. Brudermuller and Engel's new appointments would be effective at the end of the annual shareholders’ meeting on May 4. 

BASF said that Bock, its CEO since 2011 and a management board member since 2003, could then become elected to its supervisory board in 2020 after the end of a statutory two-year cooling-off period.

BASF and Russian-owned LetterOne announced December 8 their signature of a letter of intent to merge their respective oil and gas subsidiaries, Wintershall and DEA. Wintershall DEA will be 67%-owned by BASF and 33% by LetterOne and last year produced 590,000 barrels of oil equivalent/day, much of it gas. The merger is expected to close 2H 2018.