53.6 billion RMB: DSM-Firmenich’s 2025 performance explodes

【Answer 1】 Recently, DSM-Firmenich—the global leader in flavors and fragrances—released its financial results for the first half of 2025. The report shows: ① Revenue Growth Sales for H1 2025 reached €6.51 billion (approximately RMB 53.643 billion), up 3% year-on-year, with organic growth at 7%, reflecting solid market competitiveness, sustained demand, and steady core business expansion. ② Improved Profitability Adjusted EBITDA totaled €1.26 billion (approximately RMB 10.383 billion), up 29% year-on-year; EBITDA margin rose from 15.5% to 19.4%, driven primarily by cost optimization and temporary pricing effects in the vitamin market. Group net profit surged from €50 million in the prior-year period to €541 million, while core adjusted net profit grew 47% to €537 million. DSM-Firmenich is one of the world’s leading flavor and fragrance manufacturers. Leveraging innovative technologies and premium products, it has long held a prominent position across global consumer goods sectors. Formed in May 2023 through the merger of Dutch company DSM and Swiss firm Firmenich, DSM-Firmenich delivers high-quality flavors, fragrances, and nutritional ingredients to global food, fragrance, beauty, and health industries. The merger integrated complementary strengths, significantly enhancing its global competitiveness. DSM-Firmenich comprises four business units: ① Perfumery & Beauty; ② Animal Nutrition & Health; ③ Health, Nutrition & Care; ④ Taste, Texture & Health. 1. Perfumery & Beauty (P&B) Segment H1 2025 sales amounted to €1.989 billion, down 1% year-on-year, but with 1% organic growth. Fine fragrance and consumer fragrance businesses performed well, supported by strong demand for fine fragrances, consumer perfumes, and raw materials. However, Beauty & Care faced headwinds due to weak end-user demand for sun care products and customer inventory reduction. Excluding this segment’s softness, volume growth would have been approximately 5%. 2. Taste, Texture & Health (TTH) Segment H1 2025 sales reached €1.686 billion, up 3% year-on-year, with 6% organic growth. This segment excelled in taste and ingredient solutions, benefiting from favorable market conditions across all regions. Beverage and dairy applications were particularly robust. Growth was fueled by strong support from local and regional customers, alongside an expanding global footprint—including newly opened Baking Innovation Center and Flavor & Taste Center, as well as new production facilities under construction.

Green Bio: A mosquito-scented flavor ingredient that secured 60% of the global market—thriving as a niche specialist and indispensable supporting player to industry giants

【Answer 2】 I spent two days studying Green Bio. On September 2, it will ring the bell on China’s ChiNext market, trading under stock code 301688, with an IPO price of RMB 26.33 per share and a P/E ratio of 19.80x—raising approximately RMB 878 million. You might wonder what exactly this company does. Most people wouldn’t know—but chances are, the subtle scent in your shampoo or body wash contains one of its ingredients. It operates out of an industrial park in Meicheng Town, Jiande City, Zhejiang Province. Founded in 1999, the company has spent over two decades doing just one thing: supplying fragrance ingredients to major global personal care brands. Its product portfolio falls into three main categories—turpentine oil series, cypress oil series, and fully synthetic series—comprising nearly forty distinct variants. What’s intriguing is its leadership. Founder and actual controller Lu Wencong was born in 1942 and is now 84 years old—still serving as chairman and personally overseeing all major corporate decisions. This presents a dilemma: decades of accumulated technical expertise and client relationships reside firmly in his mind, yet at his age, succession planning inevitably looms large—and regulators explicitly asked whether he remains capable of fulfilling his duties. Let me outline the market landscape first. In 2025, the global flavor and fragrance market is valued at roughly USD 30.1 billion, with China’s share at around RMB 46.5 billion. The domestic household & personal care fragrance segment alone exceeds RMB 20 billion, while the global personal care fragrance market surpasses USD 2.1 billion. It’s a highly consolidated sector dominated by giants: Givaudan, Firmenich, IFF, and Symrise collectively command 64% of the global market, leveraging overwhelming advantages in branding, technology, and capital upstream. Green Bio neither competes head-on for core positions nor attempts to break into the inner circle. Instead, it deliberately targets narrow, underserved niches—segments either overlooked or not yet fully partitioned by the majors. Its products are sold primarily to these giants, who then formulate them into finished fragrances for end-use. The awkward reality is that Green Bio occupies a relatively downstream position in the value chain—earning margins on raw material inputs rather than final formulations—leaving it inherently weak on pricing power. Yet this also brings stability: once a fragrance formula is finalized, switching suppliers triggers lengthy retesting processes—so clients rarely change. Domestically, several other fragrance ingredient firms are listed on A-share markets—e.g., YaXiang Co., Huaye Fragrance, and Cosmo Chemical. Green Bio differentiates itself clearly: it avoids cooling agents and lactones entirely, focusing exclusively on ultra-niche compounds tightly controlled by international leaders—such as damascone, methyl cedryl ketone, and sandalwood derivatives. Narrowness has its advantages: giants deem these segments too small to enter directly, yet they rely absolutely on stable supply—and Green Bio has carved out an irreplaceable role precisely in that gap. Financially, Green Bio posted RMB 1.075 billion in revenue for 2025. Fully synthetic series contributed RMB 504 million (46.85%), currently its fastest-growing segment—with damascone, a synthetic rose aroma compound, as its flagship product. Turpentine oil series generated RMB 327 million (30.43%), led by sandalwood-type compounds. Cypress oil series accounted for RMB 218 million (20.25%), anchored by methyl cedryl ketone. Geographically, overseas sales totaled RMB 911 million—84.77% of total revenue—confirming its status as a truly export-oriented enterprise, with most shipments destined for major international flavor houses for use in personal care products. Zooming out over time reveals remarkable consistency. In 2022, revenue stood at RMB 631 million, net profit at RMB 68.14 million; in 2023, RMB 735 million and RMB 92.92 million; in 2024, RMB 961 million and RMB 150 million; and in 2025, RMB 1.075 billion and RMB 179 million. Over this three-year span, compound annual growth rates (CAGR) were 20.95% for revenue and 38.78% for net profit. Gross margin improved steadily—from 26.22% in 2023 to 31.78% in 2025—indicating rising operational efficiency and profitability.

International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. Stock Overview and Market Updates

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IFF shares trade at 7.50 USD on the Buenos Aires exchange, reflecting delayed quotes. Recent coverage includes AQUASCENT technology, China tariff impacts, dividends, and Q2 earnings.

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