as fwb evk industry specialty chemicals founded 2007 ; 9 years ago 2007 headquarters essen germany key people klaus engel chairman werner m ller chairman of the supervisory board products chemicals revenue 12.917 billion 2014 1 operating income 1.238 billion 2014 1 profit 568 million 2014 1 total assets 15.685 billion 2014 1 total equity 15.685 billion 2014 1 number of employees 33 412 2014 1 website www.evonik.com evonik industries is an industrial corporation headquartered in essen north rhine westphalia germany one of the world s leading specialty chemicals companies owned by rag foundation . it was created on 12 september 2007 as a result of restructuring of the mining and technology group rag . evonik industries united the business areas of chemicals energy and real estate of rag while mining operations continue to be carried out by rag . since then the energy and real estate business areas have been divested with no share being held in the former and a minority share still being held in the latter . its specialty chemicals business generates around 80 % of sales in areas in which it holds leading market positions . evonik industries employs about 33 000 people and carries out activities in more than 100 countries . the operating activities are organized into six business units which are a part of the chemicals business area . evonik is the main sponsor of german football club borussia dortmund . 2 contents 1 history 1.1 founding of the company 1.2 shareholding structure 1.3 historical significance 2 operations 2.1 chemicals business area 2.2 energy business area 2.3 real estate business area 3 corporate responsibility 4 sponsorship 5 2012 cyclododecatriene plant fire 6 see also 7 references 8 bibliography 9 external links history edit founding of the company edit evonik headquarters in essen germany historically evonik industries businesses were part of rag activities . the idea of splitting the company was put forward in 2005 . the background of this idea was that rag s core business of coal mining is carried out under government contract in germany while businesses transferred to evonik compete on international markets . this structure did not permit the payment of dividends to the shareholders which limited shareholders readiness to inject equity into the rag which thereby restricting the company s ability to access fresh capital . as the first step rag s shareholders sold their shares to rag foundation rag stiftung to split rag . the foundation was established on 10 july 2007 and evonik industries was created on 12 september 2007 . the original plan foresaw the ipo of evonik industries in the first half of 2008 . however this plan was postponed until mid 2010 at the earliest and the rag foundation started to look for strategic investors while still holding on to the plans for a midterm ipo . 3 4 in june 2008 the private equity firm cvc capital partners bought a stake of 25.01 % in the company . 5 among many other private equity investors who bid for the stake amongst them blackstone group and 3i russian gazprom was reported to have considered buying a stake in evonik industries . 6 the ipo by now planned for fall of 2011 was once again postponed in september 2011 this time citing the current state of financial and capital markets and their prospects . 7 rag foundation had planned for evonik s ipo to take place in 2012 but this was postponed as a result of poor market conditions . evonik shares have been traded on the frankfurt stock exchange since 25 april 2013 . prior to the ipo the company had given institutional investors the opportunity to acquire around 14 % of the shares for 2 billion . 8 shareholding structure edit since 5 march 2015 the shareholding structure of the evonik industries ag is composed as follows 9 67 9 % rag foundation 14 0 % gabriel acquisitions gmbh a company owned by funds advised by cvc capital partners 18 1 % free float historical significance edit in 2006 rag acquired degussa ag 10 which was later renamed evonik degussa gmbh . in 1998 degussa instructed the american historian peter hayes to clarify the company history during the third reich . 11 one of the former subsidiaries of degussa the degesch translation german corporation for pest control was the main manufacturer and distributor of the chemical zyklon b which was used to execute people in gas chambers of german concentration camps during the holocaust . 12 furthermore gold dental fillings which had been forcefully removed from the mouths of concentration camp inmates had been processed by degussa . 12 the historical significance of degussa appeared again in the publicity surrounding their involvement in the construction of the holocaust memorial in berlin because the plasticizer and the anti graffiti coating were produced by degussa . therefore the work on the memorial was interrupted to clarify the situation . in november 2003 the trustees decided to finish the building with the involvement of degussa . 13 it is also a major sponsor for bvb ballspiel verein borussia operations edit evonik divested its former holdings in the areas of energy and real estate and now focuses on the core business of specialty chemicals . 14 chemicals business area edit degussa factory in hopewell virginia degussa gold 5 g the chemicals business area of evonik emerged from evonik degussa gmbh formerly degussa gmbh an acronym of deutsche gold und silber scheide anstalt german gold and silver separating works based in essen germany . it employs about 34 000 15 people and is one of the world s largest producers of specialty chemicals . it includes six business units advanced intermediates consumer specialties coatings & additives inorganic materials health & nutrition and performance polymers . 16 degussa was acquired by rag in 2006 . its latest acquisition is the tippecanoe labs plant site at lafayette indiana from eli lilly on 1 january 2010 . 17 in november a plant for the production of dl methionine methionine was opened in singapore . at a cost of 500 million it is the largest investment to date in the chemical sector in the company s history . 18 in june 2014 the supervisory board resolved to restructure the group with plans for the six chemical segments to be bundled into three gmbh limited liability companies from 2015 . 19 energy business area edit evonik industries operated bergkamen power station the former energy business portion of evonik was operated through evonik steag gmbh formerly steag which is the fifth largest power company in germany based in essen . the company operates fourteen hard coal fired power plants of which eleven are located in germany and one in turkey one in colombia and one in the philippines and two industrial power plants . it also operates in the field of transport processing and distribution of hard coal coke and byproducts from coal processing as well as in the field of gas supply transport and trading . 20 in december 2010 evonik industries signed an agreement to sell 51 % of shares in its energy business to a consortium of municipal utilities in germany s rhine ruhr region . the agreement was finalized on 2 march 2011 . the remaining 49 % were acquired by the consortium for 570 million in august 2014 . 21 real estate business area edit evonik immobilien gmbh used to manage around 60 000 company owned residential units in germany . in addition it had a 50 % stake in treuhandstelle gmbh which manages more than 70 000 residential units . evonik immobilien gmbh was amalgamated with treuhandstelle gmbh and placed on a more independent basis in the medium term . 22 as per the resolution of the general meeting held on 25 november 2011 the name of the subsidiary evonik immobilien gmbh was changed to vivawest gmbh . on 1 january 2012 vivawest merged with residential management company ths under the name vivawest . in 2013 evonik sold the majority of its shares in vivawest to the rag foundation the evonik pension fund and the coal mining corporation rag ag . evonik now holds only 10.9 % and there are plans to sell this stake too . 23 corporate responsibility edit in 2008 evonik industries developed its corporate responsibility cr strategy as an inherent part of the corporate strategy and corporate culture . three principles constitute the basic modules of the company s cr 24 the code of conduct represents the most important corporate policy principles and standards and is binding for all employees worldwide . the global social policy obliges the employees to adhere to core values based on international rules and standards . the eshq policy sets out the commitments of evonik industries regarding the corporate values environment safety health and quality eshq . evonik industries is a member of the united nations global compact . furthermore the company is committed to the responsible care initiative to constantly improve the company s performance in health security environment and product stewardship . the annual cr report of evonik industries is based on the standards of the global reporting initiative . sponsorship edit evonik sponsors bundesliga club borussia dortmund evonik has been the main sponsor of borussia dortmund bvb since the 2006 2007 season 25 evonik was one of the sponsors of the world chess championship 2008 citation needed evonik supports the work of the episcopal agency adveniat for the improvement of the environment in latin america citation needed on 17 may 2011 as part of a charity football match between borussia dortmund and an all star team from japan evonik donated 1 million to a children s home situated in the tohoku ichinoseki shi earthquake zone which was destroyed by the 2011 tohoku earthquake . citation needed evonik is the main sponsor of the rebikoff niggeler foundation a non profit organization which conducts deep sea research in the azores using a submersible . citation needed 2012 cyclododecatriene plant fire edit in march 2012 a fire at the degussa plant 26 in marl 27 stopped production of cyclododecatriene cdt for a duration of several months . the plant produced a substantial proportion of the world s production of cdt particularly that needed to produce laurolactam a precursor to the polyamide pa12 . this shortage in turn led to concerns for global production of finished goods particularly in the automotive industry . 28 other biobased polyamides not dependent on laurolactam or cdt have been put forward as alternative materials . 27 see also edit zyklon b references edit a b c d e f annual report 2014 . evonik industries ag . burger ludwig 27 june 2014 . borussia dortmund wins sponsor evonik as investor . reuters . rag may sell more evonik shares to individual investor prior to ipo evonik ceo . forbes . 12 june 2008 . archived from the original on 2011 08 05 . retrieved 2008 07 11 . eva k hnen 1 april 2008 . evonik says owners drop ipo plans for now . reuters . retrieved 2008 07 11 . matthias inverardi ; philipp halstrick 3 june 2008 . cvc to pay 2.4 bln eur for evonik stake sources . reuters . retrieved 2008 07 11 . peter dinkloh 11 june 2008 . russia s gazprom says gas prices to keep rising . reuters . retrieved 2008 07 11 . matthias inverardi 23 september 2011 . germany s evonik postpones ipo on weak markets . reuters . archived from the original on 23 september 2011 . retrieved 2011 09 23 . evonik ceo finds backdoor to ipo after painful failures . bloombergbusiness . retrieved 2015 03 11 . shareholder structure of evonik industries ag . evonik . retrieved 2015 03 11 . http pubs.acs.org cen news 84 i01 8401notw1.html degussa in the national socialist era . evonik . retrieved 2014 05 24 . a b from cooperation to complicity degussa in