BASF chief says hostile takeover bid possible: report    
AFP, August 23 2009
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/BASF-chief-says-hostile-takeover-bid-possible-Report/articleshow/4925496.cms

Berlin - The head of Germany's BASF, the world's top chemicals group, said today a hostile takeover bid for his troubled company was possible but added that the firm was preparing defensive measures.

"Certainly an attack is possible, there is no question about it," Juergen Hambrecht, chief executive officer, told business weekly Wirtschaftswoche in an interview due to appear tomorrow.

"Our shares have been widely scattered. But like other companies, we have already considered the possibility and drawn up a defensive plan with the help of advisors," Hambrecht said.

The group has been hit hard by the crisis and last month said its net profit slumped by 74 per cent in the second quarter of 2009. At the same time, the firm, which employed nearly 100,000 people at the end of 2008, warned that it expected a significant drop in sales and earnings this year.

Nevertheless, Hambrecht was upbeat for the future of BASF's genetically-modified crops business, saying its co-operation with US GMO firm Monsanto could net"considerably more than a billion euros"by 2020.

"Our agricultural business will grow fast. Green gene technology will become a big part of our business,"he said.

"Together with our partner Monsanto, we are working on plants that produce a more bounteous crop and can survive in dry, salty soils."