Big acquisition looks promising

Article Excerpt

INTERNATIONAL FLAVORS & FRAGRANCES INC. $130 (New York symbol IFF; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 79.0 million; Market cap: $10.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.9; Dividend yield: 2.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.iff.com) makes over 38,000 compounds that improve the taste of food and the smell of consumer products. The company has agreed to acquire Frutarom, an Israeli firm that makes over 70,000 flavouring products for over 30,000 customers in 150 countries. About 75% of those products come from natural sources. If you include Frutarom’s debt, the deal is worth $7.1 billion. IFF expects to complete the purchase by the end of 2018. The company expects the elimination of overlapping operations will let it cut $145 million from its annual costs by the end of the third year. Meantime, excluding costs related to the Frutarom purchase, IFF’s earnings in the second quarter of 2018 rose 10.7%, to $1.66 a share (or a total of $132.0 million) from $1.50 a share (or $119.1 million) a..