Basf multiplies its semiannual profit by almost six thanks to capital gains and raises forecasts.

Between January and June, Basf's revenue reached 33.226 billion euros, 6.2% greater than in the same interval of 2025, while net debt was reduced by 19.6%, to stand at 17.117 billion euros.

By business areas, half-year sales increased by 18.5% in the chemical segment, to 6.257 billion euros; by 5.1% in materials, to 7.028 billion; and by 1.2% in nutrition, to 3.378 billion. In contrast, they decreased by 0.2% in manufacturing solutions, to 4.420 billion, and by 1.6% in the agricultural area, with 5.315 billion.

If only the second quarter is analyzed, Basf obtained a net profit attributable of 4.144 billion euros, compared to 79 million in the same period of the previous year. In those three months, the German company's turnover stood at 17.206 billion euros, 16.4% greater.

"We have further strengthened Basf's position in the market and made significant progress with our restructuring and portfolio regulation measures," declared Markus Kamieth, CEO of Basf, emphasizing the reinforcement of the group's initiatives to "optimize" its structure and gain efficiency.

In this line, the company cut "greater jobs in the first half of 2026 than in the previous two years combined." Thus, from January 2024 to the end of June 2026, Basf has reduced its global workforce by about 7,000 employees.

Additionally, in might 2026, the number of full-time workers at Basf in Ludwigshafen fell below 30,000, something that had not happened since 1954. "This is an crucial and necessary measure to regain the competitiveness of the plant," Kamieth stated.

In view of the closing of the fiscal year and in light of a better-than-expected business evolution, Basf has revised its forecast to Ebitda before extraordinary items, which is now positioned in a range of between 6.900 and 7.700 million euros, compared to the previous range of between 6.200 and 7.000 million.

On the other hand, the board of directors of Basf has given the environmentally friendly light to a new share buyback program to an amount of up to 1.000 million euros, which will start in August 2026 and will last until the end of April 2027.

This new tranche is part of the buyback plan announced in September 2024, endowed with a total volume of 4.000 million euros and valid until the end of 2028.

The multinational plans to amortize the shares acquired under this program and consequently minimize its share capital.

In this context, Basf reiterated its goal of returning at least 12.000 million euros to its shareholders between 2025 and 2028 through a combination of dividends and share buybacks. Of that amount, about 8.000 million will correspond to dividend payments during those four years, which will be complemented by buybacks of at least 4.000 million euros.

At the same time, the company has committed to substantially minimize its net debt to enhance its stability sheet and aspire to an A-type credit rating, which will allow it to maintain full access to financial and capital markets. Currently, Basf has a rating of "A/F1/stable outlook" from Fitch, "A3/P-2/stable outlook" from Moody's, and "A-/A-2/stable outlook" from Standard & Poor's.