AGFA-GEVAERT GROUP

German Agfagevaert Gruppe, Dutch Agfa-gevaert Groep, German and Belgian corporate group established in 1964 in the merger of Agfa AG of Leverkusen, W.Ger., and Gevaert Photo-Producten NV of Mortsel, Belg. The merger established twin operating companies, one German (Agfa-Gevaert AG) and one Belgian (Gevaert-Agfa NV, which in 1971 became Agfa-Gevaert NV). Controlling interest in the group was purchased by Bayer AG in 1981. The two principal factories of the grouplocated in Leverkusen (near Cologne) and Mortsel (near Antwerp)produce photographic film and equipment, audiotape, and photocopying and duplicating systems. The group also has subsidiaries in other western European countries, the United States, Latin America, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as distributors worldwide. Agfa, an abbreviation for Aktiengesellschaft fr Anilinfabrikation (Corporation for Aniline Manufacture), was founded as a dye company in 1867 at Rummelsburger See near Berlin; it began producing photographic film in 1908. From 1925 to 1945 it was a part of the German cartel IG Farben; in 1951 it became a partly owned subsidiary of Bayer AG, one of the successors to IG Farben. Bayer AG acquired the remaining interest in Agfa AG from Gevaert Photo-Producten in 1981. As a result of this arrangement, Bayer AG and Agfa AG together claim full ownership of the two operating companies of the Agfa-Gevaert GroupAgfa-Gevaert AG and Agfa-Gevaert NV. The history of Gevaert began in 1890, when Lieven Gevaert (18681935) started manufacturing photographic paper in Antwerp. In 1920 the company he founded became Gevaert Photo-Producten NV.