It had over 250 subsidiaries specializing in mining, specialty chemicals (Chemetall), commodity trading, financial services, and engineering (Lurgi).

[7][6][11] In 1993, the company lost 1.3 billion dollars[12] suffering from flawed long hedge strategy in near term futures contracts that was meant to protect against forward sales commitments.

Subsequently, the spot price increased and the company suffered even greater losses covering its customer commitments.

It is debated whether the company was speculating after unwinding the long futures hedge since they became essentially exposed or naked against their forward customer commitments.

It also became involved in a key European Court of Justice case (based on the tax treatment of dividends) that was heard at the same time as Hoechst.