Metallgesellschaft AG was formerly one of Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

's largest industrial conglomerates based in Frankfurt

Frankfurt

Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...

. It had over 20,000 employees and revenues in excess of 10 billion US dollars. It had over 250 subsidiaries specializing in mining, specialty chemicals (Chemetall), commodity trading, financial services

Financial services

Financial services refer to services provided by the finance industry. The finance industry encompasses a broad range of organizations that deal with the management of money. Among these organizations are credit unions, banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, consumer finance companies,...

, and engineering

Engineering

Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...

 (Lurgi

Lurgi

Lurgi can refer to:* Lurgi AG : The German Chemical and construction company* the Lurgi process for making gas from carbonaceous fuel under high pressure* Lurgi generator - a device used to produce gas from coal...

).

In 1993, the company lost 1.3 billion dollars after speculating increase in oil price in oil futures market. A subsequent drop in oil price left the company buying the oil at a higher price than the market price. It also became involved in a key European Court of Justice

European Court of Justice

The Court can sit in plenary session, as a Grand Chamber of 13 judges, or in chambers of three or five judges. Plenary sitting are now very rare, and the court mostly sits in chambers of three or five judges...

 case based on the tax treatment of dividends that was heard at the same time as Hoechst

Hoechst

Hoechst or Höchst may refer to:* Hoechst AG, a former German life-sciences company* Hoechst stain, one of a family of fluorescent DNA-binding compounds* Höchst , Germany* Höchst im Odenwald, Germany* Höchst, Austria...

.

The company is now part of GEA Group

GEA Group

GEA Group AG , headquartered in Bochum, Germany, is one of the largest system providers for food and energy processes with about €4.4 billion in 2009 revenue. The company focuses on process technology and components for demanding production processes in various end markets...

Aktiengesellschaft.