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German wholesale distributor of industrial and specialty chemicals worldwide.
German wholesale distributor of industrial and specialty chemicals worldwide.
Buys chemicals in bulk from producers and sells them on in smaller lots to a very large number of customers, adding storage, mixing, repackaging and delivery, and earning a gross profit per unit. It has two divisions: Brenntag Essentials, lower-margin industrial chemicals, and Brenntag Specialties, higher-margin additives for food, personal care and pharmaceuticals.
Moat: narrow (scale, distribution, network effects). World's largest chemical distributor, with scale in warehousing, logistics and supplier relationships.
Headquarters: Essen, Germany · Founded: 1874 · Employees: 17,339
Size Brenntag (BNR.DE) is a Germany Industrials company (Wholesale Distributors) with a market value of $10.0B, the 52nd largest of 205 Germany companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at €61.90 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 0.4%, against +1.0% for the median peer and +2.6% for the Germany market (cap-weighted) — 11th highest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue fell 5.3% over the last twelve months (peer median +4.4%); the operating margin is 5.0% (peer median 9.8%).
Valuation It trades at 14.5× forward earnings against a peer median of 19.2× (6th cheapest of 21).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 2% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +5%, so the hurdle is -3 pp: the price already allows for a slowdown.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 1.5 points above its cost of capital (5.5% WACC).
Credit Brenntag has 5 bonds outstanding ($2.90B), rated BBB+ by the agencies and trading like BBB+ at a weighted spread of 93 bp.
Next results Next results expected around 11 Nov 2026 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | €15.2B | €15.2B | €16.2B | €16.8B | €19.4B |
| Revenue growth | — | -7% | -3% | -13% | — |
| Gross profit | €1.93B | €1.96B | €2.16B | €2.25B | €2.57B |
| EBITDA | €1.26B | €1.16B | €1.29B | €1.44B | €1.76B |
| Net income | €364M | €265M | €536M | €715M | €887M |
| Free cash flow | €513M | €674M | €564M | €1.34B | €690M |
| Capital expenditure | €290M | €293M | €342M | €321M | €267M |
| Total debt | €3.61B | €3.26B | €3.38B | €2.65B | €2.93B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brenntag BNR.DE | $10.0B | 0% | -5% | 5% | 14.5× | 1.9% |
| Imcd IMCD.AS | $6.80B | +7% | +3% | 8% | 18.2× | 10.9% |
| Hawkins HWKN | $3.14B | -10% | +9% | 11% | 33.9× | 15.2% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | BNR.DE | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +1.0% | +3.6% | 8th lowest of 21 |
| 6-month return | +0.4% | +1.0% | 11th highest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -7.4% | -16.0% | 6th highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | -5.3% | +4.4% | 2nd lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 5.0% | 9.8% | 3rd lowest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 14.5× | 19.2× | 6th cheapest of 21 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 1.9% | 10.1% | 2nd least demanding of 20 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +5.2% | +11.3% | 6th lowest of 20 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | -3.2 pp | -0.9 pp | 7th least demanding of 20 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +1.5 pp | +2.4 pp | 11th highest of 21 |
| EV / EBITDA | 9.6× | 13.3× | 3rd cheapest of 19 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 2.5× | 2.2× | 8th most indebted of 19 |
| Bond spread | 93 bp | 156 bp | 2nd tightest of 4 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brenntag BNR.DE | Germany | $10.0B | 0% | -5% | 5% | 14.5× | 1.9% | +5.2% |
| Zhejiang China Commodities City 600415.SS | China | $10.0B | -7% | +22% | 22% | 14.4× | n/a | n/a |
| Applied Industrial Technologies AIT | United States | $10.3B | -8% | +8% | 11% | 23.0× | 8.6% | +8.9% |
| Toromont Industries TIH.TO | Canada | $10.7B | -15% | +16% | 15% | 20.2× | 7.6% | +8.4% |
| Hotai Motor 2207.TW | Taiwan | $8.90B | +10% | +8% | 11% | 13.2× | 1.5% | +3.9% |
| Core & Main CNM | United States | $8.76B | -6% | -1% | 10% | 14.3× | 5.3% | +16.0% |
| Addtech ADDT-B.ST | Sweden | $8.66B | -2% | +4% | 13% | 30.7× | 19.3% | +14.9% |
| Bollore BOL.PA | France | $11.8B | -28% | -83% | -7% | 36.9× | 37.0% | -29.4% |
| SGH SGH.AX | Australia | $11.9B | +7% | -1% | 13% | 18.1× | 11.4% | +17.0% |
| Rexel RXL.PA | France | $11.9B | -10% | +1% | 6% | 13.5× | 7.7% | +9.0% |
| QXO QXO | United States | $12.0B | -38% | +408% | -1% | 29.2× | 52.0% | +178.0% |
| Bunzl BNZL.L | United Kingdom | $12.0B | +22% | +2% | 7% | 15.3× | 2.3% | +3.2% |
| Finning International FTT.TO | Canada | $8.20B | -9% | 0% | 8% | 17.5× | 10.1% | +11.3% |
| Beijer Ref BEIJ-B.ST | Sweden | $8.09B | +27% | +4% | 10% | 28.0× | 14.0% | +21.4% |
| Diploma DPLM.L | United Kingdom | $12.6B | +4% | +13% | 22% | 27.5× | 23.9% | +23.1% |
| Reece REH.AX | Australia | $7.83B | +44% | +4% | 6% | 35.5× | 24.2% | +8.4% |
| WESCO International WCC | United States | $14.2B | -18% | +14% | 6% | 14.1× | 10.4% | +13.8% |
| MonotaRO 3064.T | Japan | $7.04B | +22% | +19% | 14% | 29.6× | 9.7% | +16.2% |
| Imcd IMCD.AS | Netherlands | $6.80B | +7% | +3% | 8% | 18.2× | 10.9% | +11.5% |
| Royal Vopak VPK.AS | Netherlands | $6.51B | +14% | +1% | 29% | 15.5× | 8.8% | +1.8% |
| MSC Industrial Direct MSM | United States | $6.33B | +9% | +6% | 9% | 20.1× | 9.0% | +4.3% |
Brenntag has 5 bonds outstanding with $2.90B face value. The agencies rate it BBB+; its bonds trade like BBB+. Weighted yield 3.99%, a spread of 93 bp over government bonds.