The title of the post represents three chemical ADRs from Europe. In volatile and crazy times like this chemical stocks may offer an investor the peaceful shelter they are looking for.
Chemicals form an integral part of our everyday life. They are found in pretty much everything nowadays – from card boards, food boxes like cereals,cookies etc, drinks, drugs, carpets, cleaning products etc. There are chemicals even in our food to give flavor, color, texture, etc. All these support the argument for some chemical stocks in one’s diversified portfolio.
A brief overview of each of the 3 chemical ADRs is listed below:
1.Company – Altana AG
Country – Germany
Ticker – AAAGY
Sector – Specialty Chemicals
YTD: – 18.80 %
2.Company – Arkema
Country – France
Ticker – ARKAY
Sector – Chemicals
YTD: – 0.98 %
3.Company – CIBA Specialty Chemicals
Country – Switzerland
Ticker – CSBHY
Sector – Specialty Chemicals
YTD: – 28.10 %
CIBA has slow average growth rate over the past years.Arkema is a spinoff from French oil giant Total.
Altana is from the land of chemical powerhouses – Germany. The company has roots dating back to the 19th century.From the corporate site:
” The ALTANA share price rose by a total of 35%, an excellent performance in this environment, though the figure was adjusted to accommodate the dividend payment made to the shareholders. The German chemical industry index, Prime Chemicals of the Deutsche Börse AG, was up by almost 43% at the end of the year. The comparable European index, the Dow Jones STOXX 600 Chemicals, grew by 24% in 2007.”
There are other world-class chemical companies like BASF and Bayer from Germany. We will discuss those another time. Akzo Nobel from The Netherlands is also another growing chemical company.
