SKW Trostberg and Degussa-Hüls announced this week the completion of their merger to form Degussa AG. Twenty-one global business units are gathered together into six decentralised divisions. The company's Group Management will be based in Dusseldorf, Germany. In North America the business units from SKW Biosystems, Inc. are now part of the Degussa Health & Nutrition division, itself one of six divisions. The business units include BioActives, Flavours & Fruit Systems, Texturant Systems. Each of the business units will continue to operate as they have with Texturant based in Atlanta, Georgia; Fruit Systems in Langhorne, Pennsylvania; Flavours in Cincinnati, Ohio and BioActives in Waukesha, Wisconsin. The merger of the two companies, completed February 9, 2001, makes the new Degussa the largest specialty chemical company in the world, the company claims. The 206 million shares of Degussa were available for trade on the Frankfurt stock exchange beginning February 19. Degussa employs 63,000 employees worldwide with 1999 earnings of approximately US$6.7 billion .
