Robertet SA (RBT.PA) fair value

ACCE thesis

Robertet makes the aroma and flavour ingredients, natural extracts and fragrance compounds that go into perfumes, cosmetics, food and beverages, and it sells them to the big consumer brands on long supply contracts. The moat is in the formulation work: once a fragrance or flavour is locked into a product, customers rarely switch, and a 59.5% gross margin and 16.6% ROE say the pricing power is real. Revenue is down 0.5%, so the growth story has to come from mix, natural-ingredient demand and the next product cycle rather than volume. At 15.5x forward earnings against 17.4x trailing, the market is pricing in an earnings recovery, and with a 17.0% operating margin and a 1.6bn EUR market cap, the case rests on whether that margin holds while top-line growth turns positive again. Worth a deeper look to test that margin durability and the order book before any view on the multiple.