MANNHEIM/LUDWIGSHAFEN (dpa-AFX) - BASF CEO Martin Brudermüller will make his last appearance as Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors at the Annual Meeting of the world's largest chemical company this Thursday (10:00 a.m.) in Mannheim. Markus Kamieth will take over from the 62-year-old at the end of the shareholders' meeting and become BASF's new CEO. Kamieth is currently the company's Head of Asia.

The chemical company, headquartered in Ludwigshafen, will publish its figures for the first quarter on the day of the Annual Shareholders' Meeting. BASF's sales and earnings fell well short of its own expectations last year. As a consequence, the management announced a cost-cutting program worth billions and further job cuts at the main plant in Ludwigshafen.

Additional annual costs of one billion euros are to be saved at the headquarters of the DAX-listed company by the end of 2026. It is still unclear how many jobs will be cut in Ludwigshafen. BASF management had already announced a savings program in 2022. The aim is to reduce annual costs by a total of 1.1 billion euros by the end of 2026. This includes the reduction of around 3,300 jobs worldwide, including 700 jobs in production in Ludwigshafen, as well as the closure of several energy-intensive chemical plants, for example for ammonia.

BASF is targeting earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) and special items of between 8.0 and 8.6 billion euros for this year. In 2023, adjusted operating profit fell by almost 29 percent to just under 7.7 billion euros. In the first quarter of last year, the chemical company achieved sales of 20 billion euros. Adjusted for special items, earnings before interest and taxes (adjusted EBIT) amounted to around 1.9 billion euros. The bottom line was a profit of 1.6 billion euros in the books./glb/DP/ngu