| Type | Joint-stock company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Chemicals |
| Founded | 1977 |
| Headquarters | Wesel, Germany |
| Key people |
|
| Revenue | € 1.535,40 billion (2010)[1] |
| Employees | 5,005 (05/2011) [1] |
| Website | www.altana.com |
The Altana AG is a German chemical company based in Wesel. Altana develops and produces products in the specialty chemicals business. The ALTANA Group, with headquarters in Wesel/Germany, sells 85% of its products overseas. The first chairman was Herbert Quandt.
The Altana Group has four divisions: BYK Additives & Instruments, ECKART Effect Pigments, ELANTAS Electrical Insulation, and ACTEGA Coatings & Sealants.
At present, the ALTANA Group has 40 production facilities and 51 service and research laboratories worldwide. Throughout the Group around 5,200 people work to ensure the success of ALTANA worldwide. In 2010, ALTANA achieved sales of about 1.5 billion euros.[2]
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Since 1977, Altana has been listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and was one of the DAX companies until 2007. From 2002 to May 2007, Altana was listed on the New York Stock Exchange under stock symbol AAA as well. In 2008, Altana had 4,791 employees and an annual turnover of €1.34 billion - down 3% year-on-year. The Altana group consisted of Altana Pharma AG (once the Konstanz-based Byk Gulden) and Altana Chemie headquartered at Wesel.
After the split became formal on 1 January 2007, the chemicals group was restructured into four divisions: Byk Additives and Instruments, Eckart Effect Pigments, Elantas Electrical Insulation and Actega Coatings and Sealants - manufacturing plastics, pigments for paints, printing supplies, and optical instrumentation that measures coating properties such as gloss, color and appearance. A holding company headed by Susanne Klatten, one of the children of BMW entrepreneur Herbert Quandt, in November 2008 announced that it intended to buy the 49.9% of the Altana chemicals company that she did not already own, as profits for the fourth quarter of 2008 slumped 46% after management cost-cutting failed to keep pace with sagging demand - 'especially in the U.S.', Bloomberg reported in February 2009.
ALTANA offers products for coating manufactures, paint and plastic processors, the printing and cosmetic industries, and the electrical and electronics industry. The product range includes additives, special coatings and adhesives, printing inks, effect pigments, sealants and compounds, impregnating resins & varnishes, and testing and measuring instruments.