Description
Koninklijke DSM N.V. (Royal DSM, commonly known as DSM, which is the acronym for Dutch State Mines), was a Dutch multinational corporation active in the fields of health, nutrition and materials. Headquartered in Maastricht, at the end of 2017 DSM employed 21,054 people in approximately 50 countries and posted net sales of €8.632 billion in 2018 and €9.204 billion in 2021. In May 2023 it merged with the Swiss company Firmenich to form a new entity named dsm-firmenich.
History
DSM was formed by the Dutch state in 1902 to mine coal reserves in southern Limburg and although the company had diversified into commodity chemicals and petrochemicals by 1973, when the last mine closed, DSM retains a link to its origins by continuing to use the initials, originally an abbreviation for Dutch State Mines, to this day.
During World War II researchers worked on penicillin. The code name Bacinol was used to keep the research secret from the Germans. The research was done at the company Nederlandsche Gist- en Spiritusfabriek, Dutch Yeast and Spirits Factory, later becoming DSM Sinochem Pharmaceuticals, in Delft.
In 1989, the government floated 70% of its shares in the company on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange (now Euronext Amsterdam) with the remaining 30% floated in 1996, thereby completing DSM's privatization. The 21st century has seen DSM follow successive five-year strategic periods of portfolio transformation and internationalization involving acquisitions, divestments and partnerships. In 2001, 48% of DSM's workforce was based in the Netherlands; in 2017, this was 18%.
In 2022, DSM and Swiss privately owned group Firmenich announced their intention to form a "merger of equals" to form a new group named "dsm-firmenich".
