- Grascent’s Lu Wencong started the fragrance business at 57 and finally took the company public after three attempts
- The Zhejiang company now supplies major global fragrance and consumer-goods companies, with overseas sales accounting for more than 85% of revenue
At 84, Lu Wencong (陆文聪) finally got to ring the IPO bell.
The founder of Hangzhou-based fragrance maker Grascent (格林生物) made his long-awaited debut on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange’s ChiNext board on September 2, 27 years after leaving a secure corporate career at the age of 57 to start a fragrance business in a remote part of Zhejiang.
The listing capped three failed attempts to take Grascent public. According to public records cited by Chinese media, it also made Lu the oldest founder to lead a company onto China’s A-share market at the time of listing.
The new record-holder
The previous record-holder is Wu Zhigang (吴志刚), founder of bakery chain Toly Bread (桃李面包), who was 80 when the company listed in Shanghai in 2015.
The oldest serving chairman of an A-share listed company is Li Yunxiao (李云孝) of Sun Cable (太阳电缆), born in 1937 and now 88.
Lu graduated from the former Hangzhou University, now part of Zhejiang University, in 1968 and entered the fragrance and flavor industry in 1970.
In 1999, he turned down a promised 1.5 million yuan ($223,242) pension from a foreign company and, together with two colleagues, founded the predecessor of Grascent on a barren hillside in Jiande, Hangzhou.
China’s high-end fragrance market was then dominated by international players.
Starting virtually from scratch, Grascent gradually made its way into the global supply chains of companies including Procter & Gamble, Givaudan, dsm-firmenich, IFF and Symrise.
A journey fraught with setbacks
The road to the stock market was considerably less straightforward.
Grascent first applied for a ChiNext listing in December 2020, but withdrew three months later after issues including the disclosure of an environmental penalty involving a subsidiary and a projected decline in net profit.
It tried again in June 2023, going through two rounds of regulatory inquiries before withdrawing its application in August 2024.
The third attempt began in July 2025. This time, the company made it through.
Grascent’s business has also expanded considerably during the years of waiting. Revenue rose from 735 million yuan in 2023 to 1.075 billion yuan in 2025, while net profit attributable to shareholders increased from 93 million yuan to 179 million yuan.
More global than meets the eye
The company produces nearly 40 fragrance products across three main categories: turpentine oil, cedarwood oil and fully synthetic fragrances.
It is among a small number of Chinese fragrance makers with commercialized technology for producing damascone, a key fragrance compound.
The company is also far more international than its modest size might suggest. Overseas sales accounted for more than 85% of revenue in 2025, with products shipped to Europe, North America and other markets.
The IPO gives Grascent capital to expand high-end fragrance production, upgrade factory automation and invest in new products and technologies.
Its public-market debut was met with strong investor demand: shares priced at 26.33 yuan opened at 59 yuan and closed at 53.82 yuan, up 104.41% on the first day, giving the company a market cap of about 7.18 billion yuan.
As of press time, Grescent shares slid to 46 yuan, valuing the firm at 6.1 billion yuan.
A changing of the guard
But the listing also marks a changing of the guard.
Lu has already arranged for his daughter, Lu Wei (陆为), to inherit his entire stake in the company. After more than half a century in the fragrance industry and 27 years building Grascent, the 84-year-old founder has finally reached the milestone he started chasing at 57.
For Lu, the IPO may be less a new beginning than a long-awaited retirement gift.
Header image credit: Screenshot from TV footage
