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UK specialty chemicals company making rheology modifiers and additives for coatings, cosmetics and industrial products.
UK specialty chemicals company making rheology modifiers and additives for coatings, cosmetics and industrial products.
Sells additives that are a small share of a customer's product cost but control its flow and texture, so performance matters more than price. Its main ingredient, hectorite clay, comes from a mine it owns in California, which supplies cosmetics and coatings customers.
In one line: A UK niche specialty-chemicals additive maker.
Moat: narrow (IP / patents, process know-how). Formulation know-how gives a technical edge in niche additive chemistry.
Headquarters: London, UK · Founded: 1844 · Employees: 989
Size Elementis (ELM.L) is a United Kingdom Materials company (Chemicals: Specialty) with a market value of $1.45B, the 190th largest of 363 United Kingdom companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at £190.60 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 33.7%, against -26.3% for the median peer and +3.6% for the United Kingdom market (cap-weighted) — highest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue fell 11.7% over the last twelve months (peer median +10.9%); the operating margin is 19.9% (peer median 7.0%).
Valuation It trades at 16.9× forward earnings against a peer median of 19.6× (6th cheapest of 19).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 17% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is -5%, so the hurdle is +22 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 2.6 points below its cost of capital (13.3% WACC).
Next results Next results expected around 11 Mar 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | £453M | £457M | £477M | £574M | £599M |
| Revenue growth | — | -4% | -17% | -4% | — |
| Gross profit | £220M | £199M | £213M | £217M | £231M |
| EBITDA | £112M | £116M | £107M | £110M | £125M |
| Net income | £55.2M | -£34.5M | -£37.4M | £21.3M | -£41.5M |
| Free cash flow | £28.3M | £40.1M | £65.5M | £31.5M | £24.6M |
| Capital expenditure | £19.8M | £17.4M | £13.2M | £30.7M | £38.2M |
| Total debt | n/a | £191M | £203M | £236M | £377M |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elementis ELM.L | $1.45B | +34% | -12% | 20% | 16.9× | 16.9% |
| Basf BAS.DE | $52.6B | +2% | -4% | 7% | 16.8× | 5.7% |
| Clariant CLN.SW | $4.32B | +46% | -7% | 10% | 16.0× | -3.4% |
| Croda International CRDA.L | $6.88B | +31% | +3% | 16% | 23.3× | 19.9% |
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 | ELM.L | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +6.6% | -16.1% | 2nd highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | +33.7% | -26.3% | highest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -4.6% | -42.3% | highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | -11.7% | +10.9% | 2nd lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 19.9% | 7.0% | 2nd highest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 16.9× | 19.6× | 6th cheapest of 19 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 16.9% | 20.9% | 7th least demanding of 13 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | -4.8% | +8.8% | lowest of 13 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +21.8 pp | +10.9 pp | 4th most demanding of 13 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | -2.6 pp | -1.8 pp | 8th lowest of 21 |
| EV / EBITDA | 10.8× | 8.5× | 4th most expensive of 8 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 1.2× | 0.2× | 4th most indebted of 9 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elementis ELM.L | United Kingdom | $1.45B | +34% | -12% | 20% | 16.9× | 16.9% | -4.8% |
| Jilin OLED Material Tech 688378.SS | China | $1.45B | -17% | +74% | 18% | 28.1× | 46.2% | +15.2% |
| Guangdong Orient Zirconic Industry Science & Technology 002167.SZ | China | $1.44B | +5% | +17% | 14% | 48.5× | 32.4% | +10.1% |
| LOTTE CHEMICAL 011170.KS | South Korea | $1.45B | -59% | +5% | -2% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Anhui Guangxin Agrochemical 603599.SS | China | $1.43B | -29% | -13% | 18% | 13.1× | -3.8% | +0.6% |
| Shaily Engineering Plastics SHAILY.NS | India | $1.48B | +14% | +18% | 24% | 56.7× | 35.8% | +22.8% |
| Anhui Wanwei Updated High-Tech Material Industry 600063.SS | China | $1.49B | -32% | +3% | 4% | 20.0× | n/a | n/a |
| Shenzhen Rongda Photosensitive & Technology 300576.SZ | China | $1.40B | -31% | +14% | 10% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Shandong Dawn Polymer 002838.SZ | China | $1.40B | -35% | +31% | 6% | 19.3× | n/a | n/a |
| Guangdong Guanghua Sci-Tech 002741.SZ | China | $1.40B | -9% | +61% | 4% | 58.4× | n/a | n/a |
| KumhoPetrochem 011780.KS | South Korea | $1.50B | -37% | 0% | 7% | 4.3× | -16.5% | +7.5% |
| Denka 4061.T | Japan | $1.51B | -33% | -3% | 9% | 12.7× | n/a | n/a |
| Befar 601678.SS | China | $1.51B | -14% | +19% | 5% | 21.8× | -6.4% | +18.2% |
| Osaka Soda 4046.T | Japan | $1.52B | -2% | +8% | 19% | 13.5× | 5.1% | +0.5% |
| GCH Technology 688625.SS | China | $1.38B | -32% | +8% | 18% | 19.2× | 27.6% | +16.3% |
| Stepan SCL | United States | $1.52B | +26% | +10% | 4% | 19.0× | 14.9% | +4.5% |
| BASF India BASF.NS | India | $1.35B | -23% | +13% | 4% | 17.4× | n/a | n/a |
| Wankai New Materials 301216.SZ | China | $1.35B | -48% | +5% | 4% | 8.3× | n/a | n/a |
| ADAMA 000553.SZ | China | $1.55B | -33% | -6% | 3% | 30.7× | -7.2% | +0.3% |
| Proto Labs PRLB | United States | $1.57B | -5% | +12% | 8% | 27.4× | 26.8% | +4.2% |
| Jiangyin Jianghua Micro-electronics Materials 603078.SS | China | $1.33B | -7% | +18% | 7% | 79.3× | 32.0% | +17.0% |