Symrise AG
Symrise AG is a German Aktiengesellschaft (public stock corporation) registered in the Commercial Register (Handelsregister) of the District Court of Hildesheim under number HRB 200436, with its registered office at Mühlenfeldstraße 1, 37603 Holzminden, Germany (source: company imprint, https://www.symrise.com/imprint/). Zavia.ai’s registry extract records the entity’s status as Active.
Symrise traces its current corporate form to the merger of two long-established German flavor and fragrance manufacturers: Haarmann & Reimer (a Bayer AG subsidiary tracing back to 1874) and Dragoco (founded in 1919). Private-equity investor EQT, together with Dragoco’s Gerberding family, combined the two businesses into Symrise, with the merger completed on 23 May 2003 (sources: https://www.nutraceuticalsworld.com/issues/2003-04/view_industry-news/dragoco-haarmann-amp-reimer-merge-to-become-quot-s/; https://www.symrise.com/our-company/our-history/). This verified formation date differs from the 1 January 2002 incorporation date held in Zavia.ai’s data, which most likely reflects an earlier registration or restructuring step taken during the transaction rather than the date the combined Symrise business began operating. It should not be treated as the confirmed founding date of Symrise AG without further registry corroboration.
Symrise develops and manufactures fragrances, flavors, cosmetic active ingredients and raw materials, and food, pet-food and nutrition ingredients, supplying customers in the consumer goods, food and beverage, fragrance and cosmetics, and animal-nutrition industries worldwide. Its portfolio includes businesses built through acquisition, including Diana (France, food and pet-food ingredients) and a majority stake in the Swedish probiotics group Probi AB.
Symrise shares were admitted to the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in November 2006 in what was, at the time, the largest German IPO of that year, trading under ticker SY1. The company was included in the MDAX index in March 2007 and was promoted to Germany’s blue-chip DAX index on 20 September 2021 (source: https://www.symrise.com/newsroom/article/symrise-joins-the-dax/).
For the 2025 financial year, Symrise reported consolidated group revenue of approximately €4,929 million, with organic sales growth of 2.8% (source: https://www.symrise.com/newsroom/article/symrise-delivered-solid-organic-sales-growth-and-strong-profitability-improvement-for-2025/). This is a consolidated Symrise Group figure and should not be read as the standalone revenue of the Symrise AG legal entity. In late 2024 and into 2025, Symrise also completed a public takeover offer for the remaining shares of Probi AB, raising its stake in that Swedish-listed subsidiary to over 90% (source: https://www.symrise.com/newsroom/article/symrise-has-today-announced-a-cash-offer-to-the-shareholders-of-probi/).
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Shareholders
5
Shareholders of Symrise AG
Symrise AG is a publicly listed company whose shares are freely tradeable on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (DAX). As a listed issuer, it discloses only shareholders whose voting rights cross statutory thresholds under the German Securities Trading Act (WpHG), not a complete shareholder register. Based on Symrise’s own published voting-rights notifications (source: https://www.symrise.com/investors/share-and-shareholder-structure/, retrieved 2026-09-25), the total number of shares outstanding is 139,772,054, and the largest disclosed holdings as of each notification date are:
| Shareholder | Reported voting rights | Notification date |
|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts Financial Services Company (MFS) | 10.33% | 3 Nov 2025 |
| BlackRock, Inc. | 8.29% | 3 Sep 2026 |
| MFS Series Trust X | 5.17% | 14 Jan 2026 |
| Horst-Otto Gerberding (natural person) | 5.024% | 3 Nov 2021 |
| Harris Associates L.P. | 3.03% | 4 Feb 2026 |
These are threshold-crossing notifications, each valid as of its own notification date; a holding shown above may since have changed without triggering a new disclosable threshold. Additional filers have also crossed disclosure thresholds at various points, including The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Flossbach von Storch SE and the Ministry of Finance on behalf of the State of Norway (source: https://www.symrise.com/investors/voting-rights-directors-dealings/). Horst-Otto Gerberding, whose stake dates from the 2003 formation of Symrise as a former principal of Dragoco, is the only disclosed holder above 3% who is a natural person rather than an asset manager or fund; the remaining large holdings are institutional (mutual fund and index managers).
Ultimate beneficial ownership
No single shareholder or connected group of shareholders is disclosed as holding, directly or indirectly, 25% or more of Symrise AG’s shares or voting rights. Based on the available WpHG notifications, Symrise AG does not have a verified natural-person ultimate beneficial owner under a standard 25% control threshold. Horst-Otto Gerberding’s disclosed direct holding of approximately 5.024% (as of the November 2021 notification) is below that threshold and is reported here as a major shareholder, not as a UBO.
Data availability
Shareholder disclosure for Symrise AG is Major shareholders only: WpHG rules require publication only when a holder’s voting rights cross a statutory threshold, so the company’s full shareholder base — including retail and smaller institutional holders — is not publicly itemised. Zavia.ai’s own stored shareholder data (12 records, largely overlapping index and mutual funds) reflects the same category of disclosure and should be read as a partial, threshold-based snapshot rather than a complete register.
Sources
- Symrise AG, Share and shareholder structure — https://www.symrise.com/investors/share-and-shareholder-structure/ (retrieved 2026-09-25)
- Symrise AG, Voting rights & directors’ dealings — https://www.symrise.com/investors/voting-rights-directors-dealings/ (retrieved 2026-09-25)
Registry feed — rows exactly as filed with Handelsregister (Commercial Register), including entries the profile above does not cover.
| Shareholder | Type | Holding | Source Document |
|---|---|---|---|
| MFS SERIES TRUST X-MFS International Growth Fund | 18.6% | Handelsregister (Commercial Register) | |
| VANGUARD STAR FUNDS-Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund | 10.5% | Handelsregister (Commercial Register) | |
| VANGUARD TAX-MANAGED FUNDS-Vanguard Developed Markets Index Fund | 6.7% | Handelsregister (Commercial Register) | |
| HARDING LOEVNER Fd.S INC-Harding Loevner Intl Eqy. PORT. | 6.5% | Handelsregister (Commercial Register) | |
| iShares Trust-iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF | 4.9% | Handelsregister (Commercial Register) |
Officers
67
Directors and officers of Symrise AG
Symrise AG operates a two-tier German governance structure with a Management Board (Vorstand) and a co-determined Supervisory Board (Aufsichtsrat). According to the company’s own governance page and its current commercial register imprint (sources below, retrieved 2026-09-25), the current Management Board has five members: Dr. Jean-Yves Parisot (Chairman/CEO, since April 2024), Olaf Klinger (CFO, since 2016), Dr. Stephanie Coßmann (HR, Legal and Sustainability, since February 2023), Walter Ribeiro (President, Taste, Nutrition & Health, since September 2024) and Michael Björn Friede (President, Scent & Care, appointed 2025). The Supervisory Board is chaired by Michael König and includes Ursula Buck, Jeannette Chiarlitti, Eva Kienle, André Kirchhoff, Prof. Dr. Andrea Pfeifer, Andrea Püttcher, Dr. Claus Oliver Schmidt, Peter Vanacker, Jens Wellmann and Jan Zijderveld. Several Supervisory Board seats are employee representatives, consistent with German co-determination requirements for a company of this size.
Zavia.ai’s underlying register extract lists 69 historical officer/authorised-signatory (Prokura) records dating back to 2006, reflecting long-running turnover typical of a large listed group. Nationality is not disclosed in the underlying register data for any officer and is therefore reported as “Not disclosed” throughout; country fields present in that data reflect a correspondence address only and must not be read as nationality or residence.
Recent officer changes
- Michael Björn Friede appointed to the Management Board as President, Scent & Care, effective 2025 (source: https://www.symrise.com/newsroom/article/michael-friede-has-been-appointed-symrise-executive-board-member-and-president-scent-care/).
- Walter Ribeiro appointed Management Board member and President, Taste, Nutrition & Health, effective September 2024 (company governance page).
- Dr. Jean-Yves Parisot succeeded Dr. Heinz-Jürgen Bertram as Chairman of the Management Board (CEO), effective April 2024, following Dr. Bertram’s departure from the board (company governance page).
Data availability
Officer information for Symrise AG is Partial. Zavia.ai’s raw register extract contains internal inconsistencies that were identified and corrected against primary sources for this profile: several individuals (for example Rüdiger Senft, Claus Oliver Schmidt and Walter Ribeiro) appear twice with conflicting Active/Resigned flags for what is evidently the same appointment, and Michael Björn Friede’s current Management Board seat is incorrectly flagged as resigned in that extract despite being confirmed as active by Symrise’s own governance page and company imprint as of September 2026. This profile relies on Symrise’s own published governance page and commercial-register imprint, not the raw extract, to state current board composition. Separately, four entries in the raw extract (Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Massachusetts Financial Services Company, “Staat Norwegen” i.e. the Norwegian state, and Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP) are mislabelled as corporate “officers” with the generic title “Partner”; these are in fact institutional shareholders that filed WpHG voting-rights notifications and have been excluded from this officers overview — see the Shareholders block instead.
Sources
- Symrise AG, Management and supervisory board — https://www.symrise.com/our-company/management-and-supervisory-board/ (retrieved 2026-09-25)
- Symrise AG, Imprint and contact — https://www.symrise.com/imprint/ (retrieved 2026-09-25)
- Symrise AG newsroom, Michael Friede appointment — https://www.symrise.com/newsroom/article/michael-friede-has-been-appointed-symrise-executive-board-member-and-president-scent-care/
Registry feed — rows exactly as filed with Handelsregister (Commercial Register), including entries the profile above does not cover.
Group Structure
Group structure of Symrise AG
Symrise AG is the ultimate parent company of the Symrise group; Zavia.ai’s corporate-linkage data does not identify any entity above Symrise AG in the ownership chain, consistent with its status as an independently listed DAX company. The linkage data lists more than 70 associated entities across Europe, North and South America, Africa and Asia-Pacific, reflecting Symrise’s global manufacturing and distribution footprint in fragrances, flavors, cosmetic ingredients and pet-food/nutrition ingredients. Notable named subsidiaries include Symrise Inc. (US), Symrise Ltd (UK), Symrise Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. (Singapore), Symrise (China) Investment Co., Ltd., the Diana group of food and pet-food ingredient businesses (France/US, acquired 2014), and Probi AB (Sweden), a Nasdaq Stockholm-listed probiotics company in which Symrise holds a majority stake acquired through a public takeover process completed in 2024–2025 (over 90% of capital and votes; source: https://www.symrise.com/newsroom/article/symrise-has-today-announced-a-cash-offer-to-the-shareholders-of-probi/). Ownership percentages for the remaining linked entities are not disclosed in the underlying linkage data and are not restated here as verified figures.
Verified corporate relationships
| Entity | Country | Registration number | Relationship | Ownership | Status | Information date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Probi AB | SE | SE 5564177540 | Direct subsidiary (majority-owned, separately listed) | >90% (capital and votes, per 2024–2025 takeover offer) | Active | 2025 |
| Symrise Inc. | US | US NJ 0100595956 | Direct subsidiary | Ownership percentage not disclosed | Active | 2026-09-08 |
| Symrise Limited | GB | GB 00868875 | Direct subsidiary | Ownership percentage not disclosed | Active | 2026-09-08 |
| Symrise Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. | SG | SG 200815830C | Direct subsidiary | Ownership percentage not disclosed | Active | 2026-09-08 |
| DIANA (Diana group holding entity) | FR | FR 49841930800024 | Direct subsidiary | Ownership percentage not disclosed | Active | 2026-09-08 |
This table is limited to entities that could be identified by name and registration number and cross-checked against publicly reported Symrise transactions or filings; the remainder of the linkage data (smaller manufacturing, sales and holding entities across dozens of jurisdictions) is treated as an unverified corporate-linkage dataset rather than confirmed relationships.
Recent structural changes
- Symrise completed a public takeover offer for the remaining shares of Probi AB (Sweden), raising its holding to over 90% of capital and votes, 2024–2025 (source: Symrise newsroom, cited above).
Data availability
Corporate-linkage information for Symrise AG is Partial: the group’s overall structure (Symrise AG as ultimate parent, with a broad multinational subsidiary network) is well evidenced by public disclosures and transaction announcements, but ownership percentages and legal-relationship classification (direct vs. indirect subsidiary) for most individual entities in the underlying linkage dataset are not independently confirmed and are not presented as verified beyond the entities listed above.
Sources
- Symrise AG newsroom, Probi AB takeover offer — https://www.symrise.com/newsroom/article/symrise-has-today-announced-a-cash-offer-to-the-shareholders-of-probi/
- Probi AB, information on Symrise’s public takeover offer — https://www.probi.com/about-us/information-regarding-public-takeover-offer-from-symrise/
Registry feed — rows exactly as filed with Handelsregister (Commercial Register), including entries the profile above does not cover.
Symrise AG
Germany
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Frequently Asked Questions
What does Symrise AG do?
Symrise AG is a German manufacturer of fragrances, flavors, cosmetic active ingredients and raw materials, and food/pet-food nutrition ingredients, formed from the 2003 merger of Haarmann & Reimer and Dragoco and headquartered in Holzminden, Germany.
Who owns Symrise AG?
As a listed company, Symrise AG discloses only threshold-crossing holders under WpHG rules. The largest disclosed holders include Massachusetts Financial Services Company (10.33%, Nov 2025), BlackRock, Inc. (8.29%, Sep 2026), MFS Series Trust X (5.17%, Jan 2026) and Horst-Otto Gerberding, a natural person, at 5.024% (Nov 2021). No complete shareholder register is publicly available.
Who is Symrise AG's UBO (Ultimate Beneficial Owner)?
No natural person or entity is disclosed as holding 25% or more of Symrise AG, directly or indirectly. The company is widely held by institutional asset managers; no verified ultimate beneficial owner has been identified under a standard 25% threshold. Horst-Otto Gerberding's disclosed ~5.024% direct stake is below that threshold.
What is Symrise AG's company registration number?
Symrise AG's registration number is HRB 200436 Hildesheim, filed with Handelsregister (Commercial Register) in Germany. Its current status on the register is active.
Is Symrise AG still an active company?
Symrise AG's status on Handelsregister (Commercial Register) is listed as active.
What is Symrise AG's registered address?
The registered address on file for Symrise AG is Holzminden, Germany.
What is Symrise AG's revenue?
Symrise reported consolidated Symrise Group revenue of approximately €4,929 million for the 2025 financial year, with organic sales growth of 2.8% (company-reported, group level, not the standalone Symrise AG entity).
Is Symrise AG listed on a stock exchange?
Symrise AG shares trade on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under ticker SY1. The company joined the MDAX in March 2007 and was promoted to Germany's DAX blue-chip index on 20 September 2021.
Who are the officers/directors of Symrise AG?
The Management Board (Vorstand) currently comprises Dr. Jean-Yves Parisot (Chairman/CEO), Olaf Klinger (CFO), Dr. Stephanie Coßmann, Walter Ribeiro and Michael Björn Friede. The Supervisory Board (Aufsichtsrat) is chaired by Michael König. This reflects Symrise's own governance disclosures; the underlying register extract contained conflicting status flags and mislabelled institutional shareholders as officers, which were identified and excluded.
Does Symrise AG have a parent company or subsidiaries?
Symrise AG is the ultimate parent of the Symrise group, with no identified parent above it. The group includes a broad multinational subsidiary network and a majority stake (over 90%) in Nasdaq Stockholm-listed Probi AB (Sweden), acquired via a 2024–2025 public takeover offer. Ownership percentages for most other group entities are not disclosed in available data.
Can Zavia monitor changes to Symrise AG's ownership over time?
This profile reflects a point-in-time snapshot from Handelsregister (Commercial Register). Zavia's monitoring API can track changes to Symrise AG's registered shareholders, officers, and group structure going forward, flagging updates as they're filed rather than requiring a manual recheck.
Can I access Symrise AG's data through an API?
Yes. Zavia's API connects directly to official government ownership registries across 195 countries and territories, including Germany, so records like Symrise AG's registration, shareholder, UBO, and group-structure data can be queried programmatically instead of viewed one page at a time.
Where does this company information come from, and how current is it?
This record is sourced directly from Handelsregister (Commercial Register) and was last synced on 8 September 2026.