ESIM Chemicals Files for Bankruptcy
ESIM Chemicals filed for bankruptcy proceedings at the Linz Regional Court in mid-October. The Austrian specialty chemicals company is heavily indebted.
Two Austrian organizations, the Alpenländische Kreditorenverband (AKV) and the creditor protection association KSV1870, reported on the bankruptcy in press releases and several Austrian media outlets.
According to the insolvency petition, ESIM Chemicals is not yet insolvent, but the liquidity planning for the second quarter of 2026 shows a shortfall. Restructuring consultants are being consulted, according to the press release. The Alpenländische Kreditorenverband puts the liabilities at just under €110 million, or even more than €147 million in the event of liquidation. This contrasts with assets of around €144 million. A total of 289 employees are affected.
The company is headquartered in Linz, Austria, where it has a large number of key chemical technologies and several multi-purpose plants to offer process optimization and syntheses as part of customer projects. However, ESIM Chemicals, like other specialized market players, is suffering from growing competitive pressure from Asia, particularly due to overcapacities of Chinese suppliers and a shift of projects to low-cost competitors. The current situation has been brought about by the loss of key customer projects in summer 2025 in conjunction with a massive increase in fixed costs over the past few years, particularly for personnel and energy.
"In recent weeks, we have been working intensively on solutions to keep operations stable and enable restructuring under our own steam. Unfortunately, this was no longer possible. It was therefore our responsibility to file for insolvency," said Managing Director Frank Wegener.
ESIM wants to continue the company and enable it to be restructured. According to AKV, a restructuring concept envisages the continuation of full production in two of the three production buildings. According to the company, the aim is to secure the Linz site and safeguard as many jobs as possible through an investor solution.
Custom Manufacturing Organizations (CMOs) such as ESIM fill an important gap in the business model of companies in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, especially for new products that are in the growth phase and cannot be accommodated in their own facilities without major expense. Here, CMOs act as synthesis partners in the development and approval phase of a new active ingredient in order to continue commercial production after the market launch.
ESIM - the abbreviation stands for Exclusive Synthesis and Intermediates - was formed in 2015 from the merger of DSM Pharmaceutical Products and Patheon. In the subsequent split, the more lucrative but more complex, risky and cost-intensive pharmaceutical business was consolidated under Patheon, while the Exclusive Synthesis and Intermediates business (ESIM) was transferred to Ardheon.(ESIM) was acquired from Ardian and transferred to an independent company under the name ESIM Chemicals, which has been owned by Sun European Partners since 2018.
At the end of 2021, ESIM Chemicals completed the sale of the IM business unit to the US company Vertellus in order to focus on the "ES" in the company name and the development and production of specialty chemical products. This strategy obviously did not work out. The established abbreviation was retained as the company name and has since stood for "Excellent Solutions In Motion". The products include active ingredients for crop protection products as well as intermediates for various fields of application such as crop protection, food and animal feed, personal care and polymers.
In an interview with CHEManager in September, CEO Frank Wegener described the market situation and explained: "In fact, global competition has increased significantly in recent years, with overcapacity and the associated price pressure from Asia, unpredictable customs policies and high location costs in Central Europe currently posing the greatest challenges."
