New Lanxess CEO Readies Restructuring

Matthias Zachert, who took over as CEO of Lanxess on April 1, is poised to begin a major restructuring of the German specialty chemicals and plastics firm. The effort, which Zachert says could take two or three years to complete, follows a sharp dip in the firm’s financial performance in 2013. Lanxess has raised $590 million from institutional investors to fund its restructuring activities. These efforts will focus “on the business portfolio, our business units, the efficiency of our administration, and our production sites,” he says. The new CEO is considering a broad range of options including temporary or permanent plant shutdowns and the formation of alliances or joint ventures, even for Lanxess’s core business of synthetic rubber. Meanwhile, the firm’s financial woes continue, with first-quarter sales down 2.5% from first-quarter 2013 to $2.7 billion.