BERLIN, Nov 11 (Reuters) - German chemicals giant BASF

said on Tuesday that it was targeting the Frankfurt

Stock Exchange as the listing location for its Agriculture

Solutions business.

BASF, which also presented a new management board for the

business led by Livio Tedeschi, said the decisions mark key

steps towards its ongoing push for business to be ready for an

initial public offering by 2027.

BASF's CEO Markus Kamieth is pushing to exit or separate

businesses that are not closely integrated and physically

connected within the group's sprawling chemical plants across

the globe.

Under that scheme, BASF moved last month

to sell

a 60% stake in its coatings business to private equity firm

Carlyle and the Qatar Investment Authority, for a 5.8 billion

euro ($6.76 billion) cash payment, allowing it to bring a share

buyback programme forward.

BASF has said that the agriculture unit, competing in

seeds and pesticides with Bayer, Corteva ( CTVA )

and China's Syngenta, would be IPO-ready by 2027 with BASF

eyeing the sale of a minority stake.

The company said on Tuesday it would have the legal

designation of a European company, or Societas Europaea.

A unit known as ECMS, which makes catalytic converters

and trades in metals that go into them, had also been earmarked

for separation from the core group but BASF opted to hold on to

if for now.

($1 = 0.8575 euros)

(Writing by Miranda Murray

and Ludwig Burger, Editing by Friederike Heine)