LetterOne, BASF Merge Oil And Gas Businesses To Create Wintershall DEA

Chemicals group BASF and DEA Group shareholder LetterOne signed a merger agreement to combine their respective oil and gas businesses to create an independent European oil and gas company, the companies said Sept. 27.

The new company called Wintershall DEA will be headquartered in Kassel and Hamburg and will seek to list itself through an IPO, BASF said.

The new independent company will be led by the CEO of Wintershall Mario Mehran and Maria Moraeus Hanssen, CEO of DEA, will be the deputy CEO and COO of the joint venture.