Symrise, the international market leader in fragrance and flavor production, expects higher growth for the year 2021 than previously forecasted. The organic growth rate is expected to be more than 7 percent, compared to earlier expectations of 5 to 7 percent. The company, headquartered in Holzminden, announced this on Thursday.

The net revenue is expected to be around 4.7 billion euros. The adjusted EBITDA margin is expected to be between 19 and 19.5 percent, which is slightly lower than the previous forecast of "around 20 percent". Symrise explained that the revaluation of inventories due to lower raw material prices, as well as negative currency effects, will impact the profitability. The delayed reduction of inventory also contributes to this development.

Despite lower profitability for the current year, Symrise reaffirms its medium-term goals. However, unexpectedly low profitability expectations for the year 2023 significantly impacted Symrise's stocks on Friday. This bad news also affected Swiss competitor Givaudan, whose stock price also fell. On the XETRA market, Symrise temporarily experienced a decline of 7.39 percent to 98.26 euros. This retracement level is of great importance for technically savvy investors.

For 2023, Symrise has raised its sales target, but lowered the margin forecast in relation to earnings before interest, taxes, and depreciation (EBITDA). "The capital market will question the realism of the margin increase reflected in the consensus estimates for the year 2024," commented Thomas Maul, an analyst at DZ Bank. The current consensus predicts an increase to 20.7 percent. "Decreasing raw material prices and a better product mix (with a higher proportion of earnings from the pet segment) should support the company in increasing profitability."