For BASF, the third quarter of 2025 was characterized by challenging market dynamics.

“Customer buying behavior in almost all industries and regions remained cautious. Even in this demanding market environment, BASF’s earnings came in slightly above market expectations and only slightly below the level of the prior-year quarter,” says Dr. Markus Kamieth, chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF, when presenting the third-quarter figures together with CFO Dr. Dirk Elvermann.

At €1.5 billion, BASF Group’s EBITDA before special items, including the discontinued coatings business, was down slightly by €78 million compared with the same quarter of the previous year.

Owing to the planned divestiture, the automotive OEM coatings, automotive refinish coatings and surface treatment businesses are reported as discontinued operations in accordance with IFRS 5 as of September 30, 2025. From this date, the sales and earnings of these business units are no longer part of the sales and EBIT(DA) of the BASF Group or the Surface Technologies segment.

Sales amounted to €14.3 billion (Q3 2025 pro forma: €15.2 billion), slightly below the level of the prior-year period of €14.8 billion (Q3 2024 reported: €15.7 billion). The main reasons for this development were negative currency effects, primarily relating to the U.S. dollar, the Chinese renminbi and the Indian rupee, as well as lower prices.

The Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions and Agricultural Solutions segments saw price declines, whereas prices improved in the Surface Technologies and Nutrition & Care segments. Positive volume development in the Surface Technologies, Chemicals and Materials segments could partially offset the decline in sales.

EBITDA before special items, excluding discontinued operations, decreased slightly compared with the prior-year quarter from €1.5 billion (Q3 2024 reported: €1.6 billion) to €1.4 billion (Q3 2025 pro forma: €1.5 billion) as a result of lower earnings in the Industrial Solutions, Chemicals, Materials and Nutrition & Care segments.

The significant increase in earnings in the Surface Technologies and Agricultural Solutions segments could only partially offset the downward earnings development. Earnings in Other improved compared with the prior-year period. The EBITDA margin before special items matched the prior-year quarter’s level of 10%.

EBITDA amounted to €1.2 billion (Q3 2025 pro forma: €1.3 billion), compared with almost €1.2 billion (Q3 2024 reported: almost €1.3 billion) in the prior-year period. EBITDA included special items totaling minus €0.2 billion. These resulted primarily from special charges relating to structural measures, particularly in connection with ongoing cost saving programs.

Moreover, special income resulted from the divestiture of the food and health performance ingredients business in the Nutrition & Health division. At €232 million (Q3 2025 pro forma: €278 million), EBIT was above the prior-year quarter’s figure of €191 million (Q3 2024 reported: €250 million).

Net income – excluding and including discontinued operations – was €172 million, compared with €287 million in the prior-year quarter.

Cash flows from operating activities totaled €1.4 billion in the third quarter, €681 million below the level of the prior-year quarter. The decrease was primarily attributable to changes in other operating assets. At €973 million, payments made for intangible assets and property, plant and equipment were lower by €510 million. Free cash flow amounted to €398 million in the third quarter of 2025, down by €171 million compared with the prior-year period.

BASF to Begin Share Buyback Program in November 2025

The agreement reached with Carlyle in October 2025 marks an important milestone in focusing BASF’s portfolio and unlocking the value of the coatings business. It demonstrates that BASF is swiftly executing its “Winning Ways” strategy.

In view of cash proceeds already received and further proceeds expected, particularly from portfolio measures, BASF will start a share buyback program, as already announced. The program, which has a volume of up to €1.5 billion, is scheduled to start in November 2025 and be concluded by the end of June 2026.

It is part of the share buyback announced at the Capital Markets Day in September 2024, with a total volume of €4 billion until the end of 2028. These share buybacks were originally scheduled to begin by 2027 at the latest. Part of them will now be brought forward.

“The earlier start of the share buyback program demonstrates management’s confidence in the underlying financial strength and true value of BASF, which in our view is not fully reflected in the current share price,” Elvermann says.