LVMH, L'Oreal May Bid for Aesop Valued at $2 Bn

In early December last year, several media reports said that Natura&Co planned to sell a small stake in Aesop. Now, LVMH, L'Oreal, Shiseido Group and L'Occitane Group are potential bidders.

---

Bloomberg news, insiders said that luxury consumer goods companies such as LVMH and L'Oreal are weighing offers to buy a stake in Aesop, a high-end cosmetics brand that could be valued at $2 billion or more.

In addition, Japanese beauty group Shiseido is also studying the possibility of buying a stake in Aesop, according to other media citing other sources familiar with the matter.

So far, LVMH declined to comment, while Natura, L'Oreal and Shiseido did not respond to requests.

Founded by Melbourne hairdresser Dennis Paphitis in 1987, Aesop was acquired by Brazilian beauty giant Natura & Co in 2016 after several equity acquisitions.

It is reported that back in October last year, Natura&Co had once planned to split the Aesop and conduct an initial public offering (IPO) in the US with the aim of funding the brand's expansion.

However, after 2 months, the above plan was changed. In early December last year, several media reported that "Natura & Co is working with Bank of America and Morgan Stanley to plan the sale of a minority stake in its Australian skincare brand Aesop for better growth. Its potential bidders include Shiseido Group, L'Occitane Group and private equity giant CVC Capital Partners". This means that Natura&Co has changed from an IPO to a minority stake sale to raise funds for Aesop.

However, Bloomberg also reported that "Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, CVC, L'Occitane and Shiseido, among others, declined to comment on the matter". Today, CHAILEEDO also contacted L'Oreal and Shiseido about whether the company has made an offer to acquire part of Aesop's equity, both of which had not yet received a response by press time.

According to Natura & Co earnings report, the net revenue of Aesop in the first three quarters of 2022 was 2.576 billion yuan ($381.8 million), up 8.1% year-on-year. Net income in the third quarter was 845 million yuan ($125.2 million), up 8.9% year-on-year, with same-store sales up over 20% year-on-year. In particular, the Europe region showed high single-digit growth, and the retail and wholesale businesses also showed steady growth. However, Natura & Co also mentioned that e-commerce performance remained weak.

In November 2021, Aesop started to set up brick-and-mortar stores in China. Aesop holds the exhibition of The Pleasure of Patience in Shanghai. In November 2022, Aesop opened its first store on Dongping Road in Shanghai, mainland China. In December, its second store in mainland China was unveiled in Shanghai Xintiandi.

CHAILEEDO searched for Aesop as a keyword on Xiaohongshu and found 70,000+ notes in total. Among them, many users mentioned the opening of Aesop's first brick-and-mortar store, which shows that the brand's popularity in the Chinese market is further expanding with the opening of offline stores.