L'Oréal Wins Bidding for Aesop in A Deal Valued at $2.53 Billion
- Chaileedo Press
- Apr 4, 2023
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 6, 2023
The French beauty giant L'Oréal announced it has signed an agreement with Natura & Co to acquire the Australian luxury beauty brand Aēsop. The French company finally wins the bidding for Aesop from multiple potential bidders.
L'Oréal has announced the company has reached an agreement to acquire Aesop, the Australian luxury beauty brand which is widely renowned for its skin, hair and body products. The transaction values Aēsop at an enterprise value of $2.525 billion.
Founded in 1987, Aesop’s objective has always been to formulate skin, hair and body care products of the finest quality. Aēsop has evolved into a global super brand available across luxury retail, beauty, and hospitality locations around the world.
In the announcement, L'Oréal stated Aēsop currently operates around 400 points of sale across the Americas, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Asia. In 2022, Aesop launched two physical stores in China, along with the Aesop.com platform and a domestic T-Mall operation.
Aesop became part of Natura & Co in 2012 and became wholly owned by Natura & Co in the year of 2016. Then Aesop delivered remarkable growth. According to the financial result of Natura & Co，the gross sales of Aesop increased from $28 million to $537 million between 2012-2016. And in 2022, the brand posted sales of $537 million.
“I am very excited to welcome Aēsop and its teams to the L’Oréal Groupe family. Aēsop is the epitome of avant-garde beauty, whose products are not only made with great care and exceptional attention to detail; they are a superb combination of urbanity, hedonism and undeniable luxury. Aēsop taps into all of today’s ascending currents and L’Oréal will contribute to unleash its massive growth potential, notably in China and Travel retail.” Nicolas Hieronimus, Chief Executive Officer, L’Oréal Groupe said.
“My Team and I are thrilled to have Aēsop join the L’Oréal Luxe portfolio of iconic global brands. Aēsop holds a very unique positioning on the global luxury beauty market thanks to its design led brand essence, its highly efficacious and sensorial products as well as its customer-obsessed retail philosophy.” Commenting on the acquisition, Cyril Chapuy, President of L’Oréal Luxe, added, “We have great confidence that Aēsop will join the L’Oréal Luxe Billionaire brands club and therefore contribute significantly to the growth of the Division in the years to come.”
Fábio Barbosa, Chief Executive Officer of Natura &Co, said: “The divestment of Aēsop marks a new development cycle for Natura &Co. With a strengthened financial structure and a deleveraged balance sheet, Natura &Co, exercizing strict financial discipline, will be able to sharpen its focus on its strategic priorities, notably our investment plan in Latin America. We are confident that Aēsop’s growth story will continue under the ownership of L’Oréal and wish Aēsop continued success in this new chapter.”
Several international beauty companies and investment arm showed interest in acquiring the Australian luxury beauty brand since its parent Natura & Co began working with Bank of America and Morgan Stanley to sell Aesop. And finally L’Oréal wins the bidding.
The acquisition is pending regulatory approval and is expected to close in Q3 2023.
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