Symrise ready to fight any hostile takeover bid - CFO

12 January 2011 16:51  [Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS)--Symrise has taken measures to make it harder for a bidder to take the company over, the Germany-based internatinal flavours and fragrances producer said on Wednesday.

Symrise chief financial officer Bernd Hirsch said the company had put in place “change-of-control clauses” in its refinancing that would make a hostile bid difficult, as Symrise’s financial debt would become automatically due in case of a takeover.

Also, Symrise had given its workers in Germany a five-year employment guarantee, Hirsch said in an interview German business publication Borsenzeitung.

Analysts in Germany said that either US-based International Flavors & Fragrances or Netherlands-based DSM may be targeting Symrise.

Symrise had sales of almost €1.4bn ($1.8bn) in 2009. 

The company was formed in 2002 out of the merger of Dragoco and Bayer’s Haarman & Reimer business. It went public in 2006.

($1 = €0.77)

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By: Stefan Baumgarten
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