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German specialty-chemicals company making additives, industrial intermediates and consumer-protection chemicals, spun off from Bayer.
German specialty-chemicals company making additives, industrial intermediates and consumer-protection chemicals, spun off from Bayer.
Sells specialty chemicals to industrial customers, with Europe the home base. In 2023 it put its engineering-plastics business into Envalior, a joint venture with the investor Advent in which it kept a minority stake; its 2026 sale attempt fell through, with later windows in 2027 and 2028. It has been shifting toward consumer-related products.
In one line: A German specialty-chemicals peer to Ashland/Albemarle.
Moat: narrow (process know-how, scale). Established specialty-chemical process technology and customer relationships, but commodity-adjacent segments face cyclical pricing.
Headquarters: Cologne, Germany · Founded: 2004 · Employees: 11,709
Size Lanxess (LXS.DE) is a Germany Materials company (Chemicals: Major Diversified) with a market value of $1.27B, the 131st largest of 205 Germany companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at €13.10 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares fell 30.3%, against -28.4% for the median peer and +2.6% for the Germany market (cap-weighted) — 9th lowest of 20 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue fell 9.8% over the last twelve months (peer median +4.7%); the operating margin is -0.9% (peer median 15.1%).
Valuation It trades at 0.6× enterprise value to sales against a peer median of 2.4× (2nd cheapest of 21).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 18% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is -1%, so the hurdle is +19 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 6.1 points below its cost of capital (5.4% WACC).
Credit Lanxess has 5 bonds outstanding ($2.56B), rated NR by the agencies and trading like BB- at a weighted spread of 296 bp.
Next results Next results expected around 17 Mar 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | €5.54B | €5.67B | €6.37B | €6.71B | €8.09B |
| Revenue growth | — | -11% | -5% | -17% | — |
| Gross profit | €1.07B | €1.13B | €1.30B | €1.27B | €1.94B |
| EBITDA | €655M | €497M | €609M | €522M | €989M |
| Net income | -€669M | -€577M | -€177M | €443M | €250M |
| Free cash flow | €57.0M | -€56.0M | €158M | €464M | -€301M |
| Capital expenditure | €314M | €319M | €320M | €326M | €407M |
| Total debt | €2.98B | €2.53B | €3.01B | €3.01B | €4.25B |
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 | EV / Sales | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lanxess LXS.DE | $1.27B | -30% | -10% | -1% | 0.6× | 17.9% |
| Evonik Industries EVK.DE | $11.0B | +19% | +2% | 10% | 0.9× | -6.2% |
| Clariant CLN.SW | $4.32B | +46% | -7% | 10% | 1.4× | -3.4% |
| Albemarle ALB | $11.7B | -51% | +18% | 14% | 2.5× | 10.9% |
| Ashland ASH | $3.51B | +39% | +2% | 7% | 2.4× | 12.3% |
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 | LXS.DE | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +5.0% | -8.3% | 4th highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | -30.3% | -28.4% | 9th lowest of 20 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -40.5% | -43.4% | 10th highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | -9.8% | +4.7% | 4th lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | -0.9% | 15.1% | 4th lowest of 21 |
| EV / Sales | 0.6× | 2.4× | 2nd cheapest of 21 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 17.9% | 9.1% | 6th most demanding of 15 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | -1.5% | +7.8% | lowest of 15 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +19.3 pp | +0.1 pp | 4th most demanding of 15 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | -6.1 pp | -0.2 pp | 5th lowest of 21 |
| EV / EBITDA | 4.9× | 12.1× | 2nd cheapest of 11 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 3.1× | 0.6× | 3rd most indebted of 11 |
| Bond spread | 296 bp | n/a | — |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | EV / Sales | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lanxess LXS.DE | Germany | $1.27B | -30% | -10% | -1% | 0.6× | 17.9% | -1.5% |
| Jinan Acetate Chemical 4763.TW | Taiwan | $1.26B | -3% | -36% | 46% | 2.5× | -17.4% | +41.2% |
| Xinxiang Richful Lube Additive 300910.SZ | China | $1.26B | -38% | +12% | 16% | 2.2× | 0.6% | +32.5% |
| Hanchem 014680.KS | South Korea | $1.30B | -40% | +15% | 17% | 2.1× | 4.7% | +7.4% |
| CNSIG Inner Mongolia Chemical Industry 600328.SS | China | $1.21B | -32% | -20% | -7% | 1.8× | n/a | n/a |
| Hubei Jianghan New Materials 603281.SS | China | $1.20B | -30% | +8% | 17% | 2.5× | 4.8% | +6.3% |
| China Resources Chemical Innovative Materials 301090.SZ | China | $1.35B | -33% | +4% | 1% | 0.5× | 21.4% | +1.1% |
| Nippon Soda 4041.T | Japan | $1.19B | -5% | -1% | 10% | 1.4× | 3.5% | +1.8% |
| Isuspecialtychemical 457190.KS | South Korea | $1.36B | -49% | +14% | 3% | 4.8× | n/a | n/a |
| Shanghai Emperor of Cleaning Hi-Tech 603200.SS | China | $1.37B | -16% | +4% | -8% | 18.4× | n/a | n/a |
| Jiangsu Shuangxing Color Plastic New Materials 002585.SZ | China | $1.38B | +5% | -4% | -4% | 2.2× | 22.5% | +0.2% |
| Rianlon 300596.SZ | China | $1.39B | -7% | +11% | 11% | 1.8× | n/a | n/a |
| Privi Speciality Chemicals PRIVISCL.NS | India | $1.40B | -4% | +18% | 20% | 5.1× | 30.1% | +15.0% |
| Jilin Chemical Fibre Stock 000420.SZ | China | $1.42B | -25% | +11% | 5% | 2.9× | n/a | n/a |
| Dalian Bio-Chem 603360.SS | China | $1.05B | -55% | 0% | 16% | 5.5× | 9.5% | +18.4% |
| Victrex VCT.L | United Kingdom | $1.04B | +54% | -1% | 14% | 2.7× | 15.7% | +1.9% |
| Alzchem ACT0.DE | Germany | $1.56B | n/a | +5% | 16% | 2.3× | -1.1% | +8.2% |
| Caregen 214370.KS | South Korea | $1.01B | -73% | -8% | 24% | 17.9× | 35.2% | +3.8% |
| Jiangsu Zhengdan Chemical Industry 300641.SZ | China | $981M | -28% | -30% | 17% | 2.4× | 8.8% | +11.6% |
| Fine Organic Industries FINEORG.NS | India | $1.64B | +9% | +13% | 20% | 5.5× | 26.7% | +15.7% |
| Huntsman HUN | United States | $1.66B | -37% | +6% | 0% | 0.7× | n/a | n/a |
Lanxess has 5 bonds outstanding with $2.56B face value. The agencies rate it NR; its bonds trade like BB-. Weighted yield 5.97%, a spread of 296 bp over government bonds.