Altana facts for kids
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| Aktiengesellschaft | |
| Industry | Chemicals |
| Founded | 1977 |
| Founder | Herbert Quandt |
| Headquarters | , |
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Key people
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| Revenue | € 3 billion (2022) |
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Number of employees
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7,000 (2022) |
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Altana AG (also known as ALTANA) is a German company that makes special chemicals. Its main office is in Wesel, Germany. The company started in 1977. It was created when some parts of the Varta Group became a separate company. Herbert Quandt was the first CEO.
Today, Altana has four main parts. These include BYK (which makes things for coatings), Eckart (which makes shiny metal paints), Elantas (which makes materials for electronics), and Actega (which makes coatings for packaging).
The Altana Group has 48 factories and 63 labs around the world. In 2022, the company had about 7,000 employees. It made over €3 billion in sales that year.
Contents
Altana's Journey
Altana's story began a long time ago, in 1873. That's when Heinrich Byk started a chemical factory in Oranienburg, Germany. The company grew over the years. In 1931, its name changed to BYK-Gulden Lomberg.
Later, in 1941, another company called AFA took control. AFA then changed its name to VARTA in 1962. In 1977, VARTA split into three different companies. One of these new companies was Altana.
Being a Public Company
From 1977 to 2010, Altana's shares were traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. This meant people could buy and sell parts of the company. It was also traded on the New York Stock Exchange for a few years, from 2002 to 2007.
Focusing on Chemicals
In 2006, Altana made a big change. Most of its owners decided to sell the part of the company that made medicines. This part was called the pharmaceuticals division. It was sold to a Danish company named Nycomed.
At that time, about 9,000 of Altana's 13,500 employees worked in the medicine business. This part of the company also made two-thirds of Altana's total money. After selling it, Altana's sales dropped a lot in 2006. But they started to grow again in 2007.
The company decided to sell the medicine part to focus only on special chemicals. This change happened on January 1, 2007. Since then, Altana has only worked in the specialty chemicals business. They also changed their company logo to show this new focus.
Becoming a Private Company
In 2008, the main owner of Altana, a company called SKion GmbH, wanted to buy all the remaining shares. SKion is owned by Susanne Klatten. Their goal was to make Altana a private company. This meant its shares would no longer be traded on stock exchanges.
By June 2010, SKion owned almost all of Altana's shares. On August 27, 2010, Altana's shares stopped being traded publicly. It became a fully private company.
See Also
In Spanish: Altana para niños
