Big acquisition set to transform IFF

Article Excerpt

INTERNATIONAL FLAVORS & FRAGRANCES INC. $136 (New York symbol IFF; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 106.6 million; Market cap: $14.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.7; Dividend yield: 2.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.iff.com) makes over 90,000 compounds that improve the taste of food and the smell of consumer products. The company gets about 75% of its sales from outside of North America, and the negative impact of currency rates cut its sales by 2.1%, from $3.10 billion in 2014 to $3.02 billion in 2015. Sales rebounded by 3.1% in 2016, to $3.12 billion, before rising a further 9.1% in 2017 to $3.40 billion. Frutarom adds $2 billion to annual sales In October 2018, IFF acquired 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 around $7 billion. Thanks to that purchase, IFF’s sales jumped 17.0% to $3.98 billion in…