Updates & Ideas

Elementis - Speciality chemicals group’s operating margins soar from 13% to 23% since FY20

September 2026

Investing in shares may lose you all or some of your money. Past performance is no indication of future performance. Some of the shares recommended here may be small company shares, which can be relatively illiquid and hard to trade and this makes such shares more risky than other investments.

Speciality chemicals group Elementis is one of the great recovery stories of this decade. It starts with something truly extraordinary. Deep in the scorching sun of California, Elementis owns the world’s only mine producing high-grade hectorite clay. This is a rare, soft, greasy, light-pink powder that women pay vast fortunes to smear all over their faces. Why? Because it makes expensive skin creams feel like pure silk. Historically, digging up this magical pink dirt generated levels of profit that would make a sovereign wealth fund blush. Then came the disaster. In 2018, the previous management suffered a sudden rush of blood to the head. They blew US$500m on an industrial talc business - a corporate brain-fade of colossal propor ...

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Elementis (May 2026)

Elementis (January 2026)

Elementis (September 2025)

Elementis - Talc disposal to boost operating margin by 240 basis points (July 2025)

Elementis - Specialty chemicals firm enjoys surge in operating margins (May 2025)

Elementis - “V”-shaped recovery in operating margins (March 2025)

Elementis (October 2024)

Elementis - Disposals boost specialty chemicals firm’s margins (March 2024)

Elementis - Sale of Chromium side will enhance margins (January 2023)

Elementis - Results near top end of expectations (September 2022)

Elementis (June 2022)

Elementis - Specialty chemicals group an intriguing “opening up” play (April 2022)

Elementis (May 2019)

Elementis (November 2018)

Elementis - Personal care acquisition transforms growth prospects (May 2018)

Elementis - Personal care acquisition transforms prospects (April 2018)

Elementis (August 2015)

Elementis (April 2015)

Elementis - Net cash to reach US$110m in 2016 (September 2014)

Elementis (April 2014)

Elementis (December 2013)

Elementis (October 2013)

Elementis - Specialty chemicals firm enjoys high margins and returns on capital (May 2013)

Elementis - Expands capacity in buoyant US (November 2012)

Elementis - New special dividend (September 2012)

Elementis - Eyes return of cash to shareholders (June 2012)

Elementis - Fast-growing additives group throwing off copious amounts of cash (May 2012)

Elementis (December 2011)

Elementis - Hefty broker upgrade makes shares very cheap (September 2011)

Elementis - Euro 23m fine is repealed (August 2011)

Elementis - 13% profit upgrade (June 2011)

Elementis - Huge Asian opportunity for specialty chemicals group (April 2011)

Elementis - A jewel in the specialist chemicals sector (February 2011)

With small companies there is an above average degree of risk compared to buying blue chips. Please be aware that we have not assessed the suitability of any of these investments for you. The newsletter simply states a personal view and diarises the editor’s investment decisions. Please speak to your stockbroker or other qualified individual to ascertain whether any of these companies mentioned would form useful additions to your own portfolios. Past performance is no indication of future success.

All material on this website is protected by copyright. You may use Information retrieved from the www.scsw.co.uk website for your own personal non-commercial use which means that you may not sell or copy this information to any third party without prior written consent. ISSN 1358-183X