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German maker of flavors, fragrances and cosmetic ingredients used by food, beverage and personal-care companies worldwide.
German maker of flavors, fragrances and cosmetic ingredients used by food, beverage and personal-care companies worldwide.
Develops the flavor or scent for a customer's product and is paid per kilo of the ingredient supplied for that formula, so a won formula is reordered for years. It was formed in 2003 by merging Haarmann & Reimer and Dragoco, and in 2014 bought the French firm Diana, which gave it a pet-food flavor business.
In one line: Germany's IFF/Givaudan.
Moat: narrow (switching costs, IP / patents, customer qualification). Formulations are embedded in customers' branded products, creating reformulation costs to switch suppliers.
Headquarters: Holzminden, Germany · Founded: 2003 · Employees: 12,745
Size Symrise (SY1.DE) is a Germany Materials company (Chemicals: Specialty) with a market value of $15.1B, the 41st largest of 205 Germany companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at €96.34 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 29.6%, against -21.0% for the median peer and +2.6% for the Germany market (cap-weighted) — 2nd highest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue fell 1.4% over the last twelve months (peer median +3.6%); the operating margin is 11.8% (peer median 12.8%).
Valuation It trades at 24.8× forward earnings against a peer median of 13.1× (4th most expensive of 19).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 8% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +7%, so the hurdle is +1 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 1.9 points above its cost of capital (5.4% WACC).
Credit Symrise has 2 bonds outstanding ($1.45B), rated Baa1 by the agencies and trading like AA- at a weighted spread of 91 bp.
Next results Next results expected around 10 Mar 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | €4.91B | €4.95B | €5.02B | €4.75B | €4.64B |
| Revenue growth | — | -1% | +6% | +2% | — |
| Gross profit | €1.85B | €1.88B | €1.98B | €1.72B | €1.72B |
| EBITDA | €868M | €908M | €1.01B | €796M | €834M |
| Net income | €246M | €249M | €478M | €340M | €280M |
| Free cash flow | €668M | €521M | €609M | €411M | €90.8M |
| Capital expenditure | €178M | €211M | €243M | €270M | €250M |
| Total debt | n/a | €2.61B | €2.53B | €2.54B | €2.53B |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Symrise SY1.DE | $15.1B | +30% | -1% | 12% | 24.8× | 8.1% |
| Givaudan GIVN.SW | $45.8B | +47% | -2% | 18% | 34.0× | 10.6% |
| International Flavors & Fragrances IFF | $20.7B | +2% | -17% | 11% | 23.4× | 17.9% |
| DSM-Firmenich DSFIR.AS | $29.5B | +62% | -45% | 8% | 30.1× | 24.3% |
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 | SY1.DE | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +5.9% | -5.6% | 3rd highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | +29.6% | -21.0% | 2nd highest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -6.3% | -40.2% | 3rd highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | -1.4% | +3.6% | 8th lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 11.8% | 12.8% | 11th highest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 24.8× | 13.1× | 4th most expensive of 19 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 8.1% | 7.8% | 8th most demanding of 16 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +7.0% | +10.7% | 7th lowest of 16 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +1.2 pp | -12.0 pp | 6th most demanding of 16 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +1.9 pp | -0.9 pp | 9th highest of 21 |
| EV / EBITDA | 17.6× | 10.0× | 2nd most expensive of 11 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 2.1× | 2.1× | 7th least indebted of 13 |
| Bond spread | 91 bp | 118 bp | 2nd tightest of 6 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Symrise SY1.DE | Germany | $15.1B | +30% | -1% | 12% | 24.8× | 8.1% | +7.0% |
| Nippon Sanso 4091.T | Japan | $15.3B | +1% | +10% | 15% | 16.9× | 7.8% | +10.7% |
| Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A. Sponsored ADR Pfd Series B SQM | United States | $16.0B | -37% | +59% | 39% | 7.3× | -4.8% | +20.1% |
| Covestro 1COV.DE | Germany | $14.0B | 0% | -9% | -3% | 200.3× | n/a | n/a |
| Zhejiang Juhua 600160.SS | China | $13.1B | -12% | -5% | 20% | 18.2× | n/a | n/a |
| Hengli Petrochemical 600346.SS | China | $17.5B | -25% | -8% | 8% | 9.2× | -8.0% | +5.1% |
| Lgchem 051910.KS | South Korea | $12.6B | -42% | 0% | 0% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Resonac 4004.T | Japan | $12.6B | -26% | +1% | 8% | 18.0× | 26.7% | +6.7% |
| Satellite Chemical 002648.SZ | China | $12.4B | -17% | +20% | 23% | 7.2× | -13.2% | +33.8% |
| Formosa Plastics 1301.TW | Taiwan | $12.1B | +22% | -11% | -2% | 21.4× | n/a | n/a |
| Albemarle ALB | United States | $11.7B | -51% | +18% | 14% | 11.3× | 10.9% | +10.4% |
| China Northern Rare Earth (Group) High-Tech 600111.SS | China | $19.6B | -31% | +29% | 11% | 28.5× | 24.6% | +14.2% |
| LyondellBasell LYB | United States | $19.6B | -15% | -2% | 10% | 9.5× | -10.3% | +1.7% |
| Formosa Chemicals & Fibre 1326.TW | Taiwan | $11.1B | +21% | -5% | 1% | 21.0× | 26.2% | +2.5% |
| Swancor Advanced Materials 688585.SS | China | $10.9B | +50% | +3% | -25% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Dow DOW | United States | $22.7B | -14% | +4% | 5% | 14.8× | 4.3% | +0.7% |
| Ningxia Baofeng Energy 600989.SS | China | $23.4B | -31% | +35% | 35% | 8.4× | -7.8% | +24.8% |
| Ganfeng Lithium 1772.HK | Hong Kong | $9.76B | -72% | +123% | 18% | 6.4× | 9.0% | +32.0% |
| Ems-chemie EMSN.SW | Switzerland | $24.3B | +28% | -3% | 30% | 39.4× | 8.6% | +1.6% |
| Tianqi Lithium 002466.SZ | China | $8.97B | -54% | +104% | 57% | 9.0× | -1.2% | +26.2% |
| Guangzhou Tinci Materials Technology 002709.SZ | China | $8.73B | -53% | +102% | 19% | 10.3× | 9.3% | +32.3% |
Symrise has 2 bonds outstanding with $1.45B face value. The agencies rate it Baa1; its bonds trade like AA-. Weighted yield 3.97%, a spread of 91 bp over government bonds.