Key Events Affecting Business Performance
Acquisitions and Investments
WACKER reinforced its biotechnology business in 2023 by acquiring ADL BioPharma S.L.U., a northern Spanish contract manufacturer for the food, pharmaceuticals and consumer-goods industries. WACKER had already acquired fermentation plants at the same Spanish site in León back in 2016. With its new acquisition, WACKER now owns the entire León site. ADL BioPharma’s activities will be integrated into WACKER BIOSOLUTIONS, equipping the division with more fermentation capacity and additional capacities for purification processes. In this way, WACKER has created the basis for further growth in the field of sustainably produced ingredients for the foods and nutritional-supplements industries. The purchase price for the acquisition amounted to some €150 million.
Divestitures
WACKER did not divest any business fields or product operations in 2023.
Capital Expenditures
As planned, capital expenditures increased markedly year over year, reaching about €710 million (2022: €547 million). Investing activities worldwide covered all four divisions and focused on expanding capacities to meet customer demand and growth opportunities. To bolster its biotechnology business, the Group invested not only in constructing an mRNA competence center at Halle, which starts up in 2024, but also in expanding its Amsterdam site. At Burghausen, WACKER is growing capacities for producing semiconductor-grade polysilicon and ultrapure hydrogen chloride, which is used as an etching and cleaning agent in semiconductor manufacturing. Funds were also invested in additional production capacities for specialty silicones in Nünchritz and for organofunctional silanes in Jining (China). To expand its specialty-silicone capacities at Zhangjiagang (China), WACKER is investing in the construction of several new production lines, where it will manufacture functional silicone fluids, silicone emulsions and silicone elastomer gels. At its Nanjing site in China, WACKER invested in the construction of a new spray dryer for dispersions. Capacity expansion in Nanjing, which also included construction of a new dispersion reactor, was successfully concluded in May 2023. Production capacity here more than doubled as a result.
