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Financial profile · Q2 FY2026

A cyclical chemicals platform with resilient cash generation and heavy reinvestment

BASF has a cyclical earnings model in which revenue and operating margins move with chemical prices, volumes, product mix, and industry conditions. Operating cash flow has generally remained positive, but substantial capital spending and portfolio transactions can create wide differences between reported earnings and underlying cash generation.

What is developing

The June 30, 2026 results showed better quarterly revenue and operating profitability, but the exceptional coatings-disposal gain materially inflated net income while working-capital pressure weakened operating cash flow. This represents improving operations alongside temporarily distorted bottom-line and cash-flow comparisons, not yet a clear change in the underlying financial model.

What matters next

Whether operating cash flow normalizes after the coatings disposal and working-capital drag while capital spending remains near its planned base.

EUR
Metric FY2016 FY2017 FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 FY2024 FY2025
57.6B 61.2B 60.2B 59.3B 59.1B 78.6B 87.3B 68.9B 61.4B 59.7B
(39.3B) (41.6B) (42.9B) (43.1B) (44B) (58.8B) (66.7B) (52.5B) (46.5B) (45.5B)
18.3B 19.6B 17.3B 16.3B 15.1B 19.8B 20.6B 16.4B 14.9B 14.1B
(12B) (12.2B) (11.5B) (12.2B) (14.6B) (12.2B) (14.1B) (13.3B) (11.9B) (11.6B)
(9.2B) (9.5B) (9.1B) (9.3B) (8.8B) (9.9B) (11.1B) (10.2B) (9B) (8.9B)
R&D
(1.9B) (1.8B) (2B) (2.2B) (2.1B) (2.2B) (2.3B) (2.1B) (2B) (2B)
(337m) (221m) (72m) (426m) (3B) (135m) (409m) (1.2B) (767m) (419m)
(629m) (607m) (300m) (373m) (741m) 51m (269m) 207m (222m) (231m)
6.3B 7.4B 5.8B 4B 542m 7.6B 6.5B 3.1B 3B 2.6B
(558m) 45m 113m (560m) (1.2B) 331m (5.1B) (925m) (204m) 528m
569m 455m 506m 613m 507m 453m 589m 780m 776m 741m
142m (181m) (361m) 127m (832m) (321m) (236m) (550m) (748m) (418m)
(473m) (397m) (366m) (293m) (85m) (162m) (8m) (191m) (158m) (222m)
5.4B 6.9B 5.2B 3.3B (1.6B) 7.4B 1.2B 1.4B 1.9B 2.4B
(1.1B) (1.3B) (1.1B) (756m) 91m (1.4B) (1.6B) (1B) (573m) (907m)
4.3B 5.6B 4.1B 2.5B (1.5B) 6B (391m) 379m 1.3B 1.5B
(199m) (274m) (272m) (70m) 15m (459m) (236m) (154m) (155m) (107m)
4.1B 6.1B 4.7B 8.4B (1.1B) 5.5B (627m) 225m 1.3B 1.6B
4.42 6.61 5.12 9.16 (1.15) 6.01 (0.70) 0.25 1.45 1.81