IFF

IFF is a hold — a quality franchise (Taste, Scent, Health & Biosciences) trading at a non-demanding 1.8x sales after a brutal post-DuPont N&B integration, but the FY2025 print is too messy to lean in. Revenue fell 5.2% to $10.9B and operating income swung to -$382M, driven explicitly by a $1.153B goodwill impairment on the newly carved-out Food Ingredients reporting unit following the January 2025 Nourish split. Strip that non-cash charge and the underlying business is still profitable, but the pattern of impairments — Nourish in 2023, Pharma Solutions in 2024, Food Ingredients in 2025 — confirms management overpaid for N&B and is still working through the consequences.

The balance-sheet story is the most encouraging line item: long-term debt fell 37.3% to $4.74B, funded in part by the May 2025 Pharma Solutions divestiture. That deleveraging directly addresses the 'substantial amount of indebtedness' the 10-K names as a material risk and improves the odds the dividend (still $409M paid, though down 20.4%) holds. Cash rose 25.8% to $590M, OCF of $850M comfortably covers $594M of capex (which itself is up 28.3% — reinvestment, not harvesting), and equity edged up to $14.2B despite the loss. R&D of $694M (+3.4%) signals the innovation engine in Taste/Scent/H&B is being protected.