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UK specialty chemicals maker producing ingredients for personal care, health/pharma (incl. lipid delivery for mRNA vaccines) and agriculture.
UK specialty chemicals maker producing ingredients for personal care, health/pharma (incl. lipid delivery for mRNA vaccines) and agriculture.
Makes ingredients that go into customers' products, often developed jointly and written into their formulations, so a switch means retesting. Beauty, fragrance and personal-care ingredients, including the fragrance house Iberchem bought in 2020, form the largest part. Life Sciences supplies drug-delivery lipids and adjuvants; COVID vaccine demand lifted then cut that line.
In one line: A specialty-ingredients maker, like a smaller International Flavors & Fragrances.
Moat: narrow (IP, process know-how, customer qualification). Proprietary ingredient formulations, such as lipid nanoparticles for mRNA drugs, are patent- and process-protected.
Headquarters: Snaith, UK · Founded: 1925 · Employees: 5,954
Size Croda International (CRDA.L) is a United Kingdom Materials company (Chemicals: Specialty) with a market value of $6.88B, the 73rd largest of 363 United Kingdom companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at £3,666 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 31.4%, against -12.6% for the median peer and +3.6% for the United Kingdom market (cap-weighted) — highest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 3.4% over the last twelve months (peer median +11.6%); the operating margin is 15.6% (peer median 15.4%).
Valuation It trades at 23.3× forward earnings against a peer median of 15.9× (7th most expensive of 20).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 20% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +4%, so the hurdle is +16 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 3.9 points below its cost of capital (11.2% WACC).
Next results Next results expected around 23 Feb 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | £1.72B | £1.70B | £1.63B | £1.69B | £2.09B |
| Revenue growth | — | +4% | -4% | -19% | — |
| Gross profit | £616M | £609M | £598M | £604M | £865M |
| EBITDA | £406M | £405M | £380M | £424M | £598M |
| Net income | £79.5M | £62.0M | £158M | £171M | £649M |
| Free cash flow | £188M | £172M | £148M | £165M | £172M |
| Capital expenditure | £97.9M | £120M | £182M | £189M | £152M |
| Total debt | n/a | £697M | £699M | £710M | £616M |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Croda International CRDA.L | $6.88B | +31% | +3% | 16% | 23.3× | 19.9% |
| International Flavors & Fragrances IFF | $20.7B | +2% | -17% | 11% | 23.4× | 17.9% |
| Clariant CLN.SW | $4.32B | +46% | -7% | 10% | 16.0× | -3.4% |
| Evonik Industries EVK.DE | $11.0B | +19% | +2% | 10% | 12.0× | -6.2% |
| Basf BAS.DE | $52.6B | +2% | -4% | 7% | 16.8× | 5.7% |
| Lonza LONN.SW | $55.4B | +39% | -11% | 25% | 36.1× | 15.0% |
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 | CRDA.L | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +9.6% | -3.0% | 3rd highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | +31.4% | -12.6% | highest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -3.1% | -33.0% | 2nd highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +3.4% | +11.6% | 8th lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 15.6% | 15.4% | 11th highest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 23.3× | 15.9× | 7th most expensive of 20 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 19.9% | 7.2% | 4th most demanding of 17 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +4.1% | +12.1% | 3rd lowest of 17 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +15.8 pp | -7.2 pp | 3rd most demanding of 17 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | -3.9 pp | +0.8 pp | 4th lowest of 21 |
| EV / EBITDA | 14.1× | 10.7× | 5th most expensive of 11 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 1.4× | 1.3× | 5th most indebted of 11 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Croda International CRDA.L | United Kingdom | $6.88B | +31% | +3% | 16% | 23.3× | 19.9% | +4.1% |
| Eastman Chemical EMN | United States | $7.37B | -13% | 0% | 10% | 10.2× | 5.1% | +0.7% |
| SOL SOL.MI | Italy | $6.39B | +6% | +9% | 14% | 30.5× | 16.9% | +12.8% |
| NewMarket NEU | United States | $6.39B | +1% | +1% | 20% | n/a | -0.8% | +6.3% |
| Haohua Chemical Science & Technology 600378.SS | China | $6.29B | -9% | +20% | 9% | 22.1× | 11.0% | +25.2% |
| Linde India LINDEINDIA.NS | India | $6.20B | -13% | +13% | 22% | 97.2× | 47.9% | +11.5% |
| Shenzhen Capchem Technology 300037.SZ | China | $6.16B | -21% | +72% | 13% | 19.0× | 19.3% | +26.6% |
| Inner Mongolia Junzheng Energy & Chemical 601216.SS | China | $5.92B | -16% | +3% | 11% | 12.0× | -3.4% | +11.3% |
| Westlake WLK | United States | $8.11B | -32% | 0% | 1% | 38.6× | 37.4% | +8.3% |
| Kingboard 0148.HK | Hong Kong | $5.78B | -17% | +19% | 15% | 5.0× | n/a | n/a |
| Shandong Hualu-Hengsheng Chemical 600426.SS | China | $8.27B | -32% | +3% | 16% | 12.3× | -2.5% | +18.7% |
| Nissan Chemical 4021.T | Japan | $5.72B | 0% | +10% | 23% | 15.9× | 9.3% | +6.0% |
| Zhejiang Longsheng 600352.SS | China | $5.70B | -11% | -1% | 19% | 13.7× | -5.2% | -3.1% |
| Coromandel International COROMANDEL.NS | India | $5.69B | -7% | +24% | 8% | 27.3× | n/a | n/a |
| Canmax Technologies 300390.SZ | China | $5.62B | -64% | +98% | 27% | 7.3× | n/a | n/a |
| LB Group Co., Ltd. Class A 002601.SZ | China | $5.58B | -8% | +7% | 7% | 22.4× | 5.0% | +12.9% |
| Gujarat Fluorochemicals FLUOROCHEM.NS | India | $5.42B | +23% | +20% | 17% | 53.0× | n/a | n/a |
| Guangzhou Tinci Materials Technology 002709.SZ | China | $8.73B | -53% | +102% | 19% | 10.3× | 9.3% | +32.3% |
| Tianqi Lithium 9696.HK | Hong Kong | $8.79B | -64% | +116% | 57% | 5.0× | -10.8% | +25.3% |
| Hoshine Silicon Industry 603260.SS | China | $5.32B | -33% | -7% | -6% | 41.7× | 22.5% | +18.5% |
| Methanex MX.TO | Canada | $5.18B | +12% | +31% | 23% | 6.9× | -9.4% | +7.1% |