In 2023, H&M Beauty takes another step towards its vision to build the most fashionable beauty destination. The Swedish fashion retail giant released on its official website that the company’s first Global Flagships will Open on 5th May. The second store will open on 25th May in Oslo City. H&M said “H&M Beauty takes another step towards its vision to build the most fashionable beauty destination in 2023. H&M Beauty invites customers to a brand-new and upgraded in-store experience By opening the doors to their first ever global flagships.” The stores will provide a wide selection of H&M beauty products under the Huda Beauty, WISHFUL, KAYALI, Smashbox, Anastasia Beverly Hills, KVD, Origins and Emma S brand. The first beauty store will be in Oslo with a space of approximately 300 square metres and will be based within H&M with their own entrances and will offer H&M Beauty’s own label alongside over 80 external brands. Customers will be able to enjoy beauty bars, shop inspirational products and get help and advice from in store beauty advisers. Inspiration for the store concept and design mixes cocktail bar and spa-like aesthetics, offering both a social scene as well as a self-care and wellness assortment. H&M said the company has worked actively during the past few years to build its own beauty organisation and these flagship stores aim to sharpen its offer, meet customer demand, and create an elevated physical store experience. “We are very happy that we can now offer our customers a well-curated beauty assortment that goes hand-in-hand with the fashion we offer. Our goal is to inspire every customer who enters a H&M store, or who shops online at hm.com, to leave with a complete look across fashion and beauty.” says Cathrine Wigzell, General Manager, H&M Beauty.

Despite inflation and volatility in the global beauty industry, there are indications of a recovery, particularly in the Chinese market. Chinese investment management firm Primavera Capital has entered the bidding with the global leading cosmetic company L’Oreal and PE firm Permira for acquiring a stake in the luxury beauty brand Aesop, people with insider information of the matter said. It is said that the Chinese investment firm Primavera Capital has completed the latest round of bidding to acquire stake in Aesop but the deal is still ongoing. As early as October 2022, it is reported that the Brazilian beauty giant Natura & Co was working with Bank of America and Morgan Stanley to sell a minority stake in its Australian skin care brand Aesop, potential bidders include Shiseido Group, L'Occitane Group and private equity giant CVC Capital Partners. The deal could value Aesop at about $2 billion. According to Aesop's official website, its product line covers skin care, body and hand care, hair care, perfume and household products. In 2013, Natura & Co acquired 40% of the equity held by Harbert Private Equity and 25% of the equity from the founder, with a total transaction value of A$ 68.25 mil (USD 45.86 mil), becoming the largest shareholder of Aesop. In 2016, after several following acquisitions, Aesop was wholly owned by Natura & Co. According to Natura & Co's financial report, In the 2022 fiscal year, Natura & Co Group delivered R$ 36.350 bil （USD 7.18 bil） in net income, with a year-on-year decrease of 9.5%; the gross profit achieved R$ 23.2 bil (USD 4.59 bil), down 11% year-over-year in BRL compared to the previous year. Despite the decline in overall performance of Natura & Co, Aesop became the only segment delivered growth for the group in the fiscal year of 2022. Net income of Aesop increased by 4.6% to R$ 2.719 billion (USD 536.95 mil) in 2022. The company again achieved another quarter of double-digit growth in constant currency, up 18.2% (-2.1% in BRL). All regions delivered double-digit growth despite the challenging environment. Natura & Co stated that the highlight of the fourth quarter in the fiscal year of 2022 was Aesop's successful China market entry, with the launch of two physical stores, along with the Aesop.com platform and a domestic T-Mall operation. Before deciding to sell Aesop, Natura & Co had tried to spin off Aesop for IPO. Then several major international cosmetics groups such as L'Oréal, LVMH or Shiseido showed interest in acquiring Aesop, the Brazilian cosmetics giant said it was "still evaluating the feasibility of selling its stake in Aesop, as one of the strategic options "will enable the group to provide fund for Aesop's growth and deliver further value to its shareholders. It is said that discussions of the deal are ongoing and no final decisions have been made on the size or timing of the sale of any stake. Natura & Co did not respond for the detail of the deal, while Primavera declined to comment. The Brazilian beauty giant Natura & Co said earlier this month it had received non-binding offers to sell Aesop in whole or in part and is still under discussion. It is said that he move is part of a reform of Natura & Co, which was led by Fabio Barbosa, who became the chief executive officer last year. Primavera Capital Group is an investment firm that focuses on private equity and special situations opportunities. Primavera invests across the full life cycle of a business, from early-stage venture funding to late-stage growth capital, private credit, restructuring financing, carve-out/ spin-off, and full buyout. The company was founded in 2010 and is based in Beijing, China. The global beauty industry has been facing challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic in recent years. However, as the epidemic control measures are relaxed in some countries, including China, there are indications of a recovery in the beauty industry. Many global beauty companies are eyeing the Chinese market as an opportunity to overcome the challenges they are facing. The recent acquisition of Aesop by a Chinese investor also suggests that there is optimism about the recovery of the beauty industry in China. This acquisition indicates that Chinese investors see the potential in the beauty industry and are willing to invest in it. It also shows that Chinese companies are interested in acquiring high-quality international brands, which could help them to expand their presence in the global beauty market. Overall, despite inflation and volatility in the global market, there are indications of a recovery, particularly in the Chinese market. Many global beauty companies are looking to expand their presence in China, and Chinese investors are showing interest in the industry. This suggests that there is still significant potential in the beauty industry and that it remains an attractive market for companies and investors alike.

Winona's revenue accounted for 91.18% of parent company Botanee's revenue. March 30th, Botanee (BTN) released its FY2022 financial results. According to the report, its revenue in 2022 was 5.014 billion yuan ($728.7 million), up 24.65% year-on-year. Its net profit was 1.051 billion yuan ($152.7 million), up 21.82% year-on-year. BTN is a skin health internet+ health industry group, integrating R&D, production, marketing and service. It enjoys a solid academic and clinical foundation. Its brand Winona has become the number one brand of functional skincare products in China. Its brands include Winona, Winona Baby, AOXMED, etc. (Credit: BTN’s financial results) The financial results disclosed that the core brand of BTN, Winona, achieved revenue of 4.885 billion yuan ($710 million) in 2022. One of its other brands, Winona Baby’s revenue was 101 million yuan ($14.7 million). It is understood that in 2022, Winona ranked 6th in the beauty category on the Chinese e-commerce platform Tmall during the Chinese Double 11 Shopping Festival. It is the only Chinese brand that has been listed on the Top 10 of the beauty and skincare category on Tmall for 5 consecutive years during the Chinese Double 11 Shopping Festival. Its Anti-Sensitive Moisturizing Tolerance-Extreme Cream was ranked as the top 1 allergy soothing cream category on Tmall during the Chinese Double 11 Shopping Festival. The sales of Soothing Repairing Freeze Dried Mask continued to grow strongly, holding the position of the top single product in the freeze-dried facial mask sector. (Credit: BTN’s financial results) In terms of sales channels, Bethenny has seized the development opportunities through the strategy of building a foundation in the offline medical channel and covering the whole network online. The online self-operated retail business is an important part of the company's sales channels. The revenue from online self-operated business amounted to 3.157 billion yuan ($459 million) during the reporting period, accounting for 63.79% of the total revenue. The revenue from offline self-operated business amounted to 11.85 million yuan ($1.7 million), representing a year-on-year increase of 628.18%. (Credit: BTN’s financial results) In addition, the annual report further showed that the skincare category was the main source of BTN, accounting for 91.18% of the whole revenue. Meanwhile, revenue from the color cosmetics business was 53.14 million yuan ($7.7 million), an increase of 0.14% year-on-year. (Credit: BTN’s financial results) Looking back at 2022, BTN said it had built a complete marketing matrix: joining forces with experts and doctors, cooperating KOLs and KOCs to carry out tiered publicity and word-of-mouth marketing, and refining content operations to effectively promote its products. It actively incubated new brands, launching AOXMED to specialize in anti-aging, and enriching the "Winona Baby" range to increase its competitive edge. It is worth mentioning that Beforteen, a professional acne brand, will be launched in 2023. According to reports, the brand is based on China's skin disease data research. Through the combination of top medical research + AI artificial intelligence deep learning independent research and development, the original integrated precision acne treatment solutions can be provided.

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.

Aesop's parent company, Natura & Co, stated financial results showing the Aesop’s two physical shops in China opened performed well, with sales sweeping into the Top 1 and Top 2 of Aesop's signature shops worldwide. Recently, the parent company of Aesop and Avon, Brazilian beauty giant Natura & Co, released its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2022 and the FY 2022. The results show that Natura & Co's total revenue for FY2022 was R$36.3 billion ($6.9 billion), down 9.5% year-on-year, with a net loss of R$2.9 billion ($552.7 million), a significant drop of 372.9% year-on-year. For the fourth quarter, Natura & Co's total revenue was R$10.4 billion ($2 billion), down 10.8% year-on-year, with a net income loss of R$890.4 million ($170 million), down 228% year-on-year. In terms of overall net profit, its performance has improved somewhat compared to the huge decline of 1,869.5% in the first half of the year although still down over 300% for the year. Natura & Co boasts four brands, Natura & Co Latam, Avon International, The Body Shop and Aesop, all recorded negative growth in the fourth quarter. Natura & Co Latam's FY2022 revenue was R$22 billion ($4.2 billion), down 1.7% year-on-year. Body Shop's net revenue in FY2022 fell 24.3% to R$4.4 billion ($838.6 million). Avon International’s net revenue also fell 22.9% to R$7.2 billion ($1.37 billion) in FY2022. Aesop's net income declined by 2.1% to R$879.6 million ($167.6 million) in the fourth quarter and increased by 4.6% to R$2.7 billion ($514.6 million) for FY2022. The results show that Aesop achieved double-digit year-on-year growth in all regions, despite a deteriorating macro environment. The financial report made special mention of Aesop's impressive performance in China. 2022 saw the opening of Aesop's first shop in China in November in Shanghai, followed by the opening of Aesop's second shop in Shanghai too a month later. The two physical shops achieved better results. In response to Aesop's impressive performance, the Group commented that the launch of the business in China was a very critical move in Aesop's strategy. Although Aesop is still in the early stages in China, the two shops mentioned above have exceeded expectations and their sales have become the Top 1 and Top 2 of Aesop's signature shops worldwide. It is worth noting that Natura & Co said it was considering a public offering or split of Aesop last year. Since then, many big companies such as Shiseido, L'Occitane Group and private equity giant CVC Capital Partners have all been rumored to be preparing bids for Aesop. Later on, luxury consumer goods companies such as LVMH and L'Oréal are weighing offers to buy a stake in Aesop, which could value the high-end cosmetics brand at $2 billion.

SINOHIGHCHEM is the exclusive supplier of HAP products sourced by Symrise in China. Recently, cosmetic raw material supplier SINOHIGHCHEM disclosed its annual report. The annual report shows that in 2022, the company achieved an operating revenue of 398 million yuan ($57.7 million), up 16.39% year-on-year. Its net profit achieved 107 million yuan ($15.5 million), up 61.32% year-on-year. Public information shows that SINOHIGHCHEM is mainly engaged in the research and development, production and sales of aromatic ketones, and its products involve special engineering plastics, light-curing materials, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, pesticides and many other fields. The company's cosmetic-related business involves HAP products, which, as a functional cosmetic ingredient with multiple effects such as antioxidant, soothing, emulsion stabilization and anticorrosion, have been included in the Inventory of Existing Cosmetic Ingredients in China 2015 (2015 edition). Due to the restriction of traditional cosmetic preservatives by relevant policies and regulations and the increase in consumers' demand for product safety, new functional cosmetic ingredients represented by HAP have been increasingly recognized and welcomed by the market in recent years. SINOHIGHCHEM is the exclusive supplier of HAP products sourced by Symrise in China. CHAILEEDO notes that in its annual report, SINOHIGHCHEM reiterates the importance of its successful cooperation with Symrise over the years and believes that it will have a positive effect on future cooperation in other product areas. It is worth noting that SINOHIGHCHEM's cosmetic ingredients business generated revenue of 46,444,000 yuan ($6.734 million) in 2022, while this business generated revenue of 50.634 million yuan ($7.3 million) in 2021, representing an 8.28% decrease in revenue year-on-year. On the basis of the overall breakthrough in performance, why did the cosmetic ingredients business of SINOHIGHCHEM decline? The explanation given by SINOHIGHCHEM during a survey conducted by some investors on 26 September 2022 was that "due to the fluctuation of raw materials, the price of HAP products will be adjusted periodically according to the price of raw materials and other factors. The fluctuation in gross margin of this product in the first half of the year was mainly affected by fixed cost sharing." According to public information, SINOHIGHCHEM plans to add 2,000 tons of HAP production capacity, which is nearly half of the total existing business capacity of 4,200 tons. At the same time, regarding the company's future outlook in the field of cosmetic ingredients, SINOHIGHCHEM said that it will work closely with downstream customers and research institutes to focus on the downstream application scenarios of cosmetic ingredients and produce products with greater development potential in order to develop new profit growth.

Recently, cyberstar Grace Chow (Zhou Yangqing) revealed through social media that "the investor of her beauty brand CODEMINT is the American Estee Lauder headquarters." CHAILEEDO found that Grace Chow has 11.03 million followers on Chinese social media Weibo and 2.22 million followers on Instagram. If the news is true, it means that "Estee Lauder Group has invested in the first Chinese makeup brand created by a cyberstar". (Credit: this picture shows that Grace Chow says the investor of her beauty brand CODEMINT is Estee Lauder's headquarters in the United States.) Grace Chow posted a video on social media platforms a while ago, saying that "the investor of her personal beauty brand CODEMINT is Estee Lauder headquarters in the United States, and she will go to New York to do a debriefing report to the investor on the development and operation of the brand in the past two years." She also published the first draft of her debriefing report at the end of the video. Grace Chow then posted another video saying, "I received flowers and gifts from MAC as soon as I arrived in New York". According to public information, CODEMINT is a beauty brand created by Grace Chow in 2021, positioned as clean beauty. It is understood that the well-known beauty OEM COSMAX is an angel investor in CODEMINT, and the brand is also the first beauty start-up brand COSMAX has invested in. The brand's Tmall flagship shop has 24 SKUs, priced between 78 yuan ($11.3) and 259 yuan ($37.6), with the highest sales of CODEMINT Pre-make-up Coffee Mask priced at 139 yuan ($20.2), with total sales of over 80,000 units. CHAILEEDO noted that the notes posted on the official account of CODEMINT on Chinese social media Xiaohongshu on 8 November 2022 had mentioned that the brand had received investment from cosmetics giant Estee Lauder Group and COSMAX, the world's number one cosmetics supply chain. In 2022, several media reported in public stating that "CODEMINT is the first direct investment in a Chinese clean beauty brand by the Estée Lauder Group headquarters." It is reported that the main company of CODEMINT is Hangzhou Jianfa Meixue Technology Co. According to the public information, Grace Chow is the legal person, the largest shareholder, the actual controller and the ultimate beneficiary of Hangzhou Jianfa Meixue Technology Co. COSMAX holds 6.4782% of the shares. On 31 December 2021, CALLA, L.L.C., a U.S. company, contributed 235,300 yuan ($34,142) and held 8.6364% of the shares. CALLA, L.L.C, the United States enterprise, is an investor in the United States Estee Lauder headquarters, which is rumored by many netizens. As recently as February 18, a user on Xiaohongshu posted, "Is CodeMint invested by Estee Lauder?" Below the post, a netizen replied, "CALLA, L.L.C. is a wholly-owned holding company of EL (Estee Lauder) and Dr. Jert (or "Dr. Jart+"), also a wholly owned holding company of EL (Estee Lauder) was also acquired by this entity." (Credit: this picture shows that some users on Xiaohongshu said CALLA L.L.C., a wholly-owned holding company of EL (Estee Lauder), is the investor of CODEMINT) Publicly available information shows that CALLA, L.L.C. was founded on March 31, 1997 and is located in Michigan, USA. It is understood that Estee Lauder Group is headquartered in Manhattan, New York, USA. In addition, when Estee Lauder Group previously acquired Dr. Jart+'s parent company Have & Be Co. Ltd, it did not mention CALLA, L.L.C. as the main company to complete the acquisition of the former. In addition, no connection between CALLA, L.L.C. and the Estée Lauder Group has been identified through public sources. (Credit: this picture shows that the consumer service of CODEMINT said the brand did get investment of Estee Lauder.) As for Estée Lauder's investment in CODEMINT, CHAILEEDO contacted the brand owner of CODEMINT, COSMAX China and Estée Lauder respectively for confirmation. In this regard, the customer service of CODEMINT on the flagship store on Tmall said, "Estée Lauder Group did invest in CODEMINT." The assistant general manager of COSMAX (China), Shen Yingjie, said, "It is true that a foreign company has taken a stake in Hangzhou Jianfa Meixue Technology Co., but it is not clear whether it is related to Estee Lauder." Estée Lauder only said the question had been received but had not responded on the matter at press time.

For this acquisition, Givaudan says it will support its active beauty business. Going forward, Givaudan will continue to drive biotechnology. On February 22, Givaudan, a leading global fragrance and beauty innovation company, announced that it has entered into an agreement with synthetic biohead company Amyris to acquire some of Amyris' cosmetic ingredients, including the highest performance emollient Neossance® Squalane, the plant-based silicone alternative Neossance® Hemisqualane and the CleanScreen™, a sustainable sunscreen. As part of Givaudan's 2025 strategy, this acquisition partnership will provide the company with new premium products to expand its active beauty business. Givaudan and Amyris have signed a long-term collaboration agreement under which Amyris will continue to produce ingredients for Givaudan for cosmetic use and this fragrance and beauty company will become a commercialisation partner for future sustainable beauty ingredients. Amyris is a leading biotechnology company accelerating the world's transition to sustainable consumption through its technology platform in the beauty, health and wellness and flavours and fragrances markets. In addition to its ingredients business, Amyris comprises several beauty brands such as Biossance, Stripes, JVN, Rose Inc and others. According to Amyris' H1 2022 results, the Consumer Products division, where its beauty brands are located, reported sales of $77.5 million, up 113%. The technology division, where the ingredients business is based, generated sales of $45.4 million, up 16% year-on-year. Givaudan has established a significant partnership with Amyris to leverage the Amyris technology platform to design, scale and manufacture best performing biofermented ingredients. Commenting on the strategic partnership, Maurizio Volpi, Maurizio Volpi, President Givaudan Fragrance & Beauty, said, "I am delighted about this transaction, which fits perfectly with our 2025 strategic ambitions to develop our active beauty business while leveraging our biotechnology leadership in partnership with Amyris’ expertise. In the future, we will continue to push the boundaries of biotech, creating new sustainable innovations for a better beauty future." John Melo, Amyris President and Chief Executive Officer, said Amyris is able to offer differentiated sustainable ingredients that are exactly what consumers are looking for. And, these ingredients will keep Givaudan on the leading edge. The deal provides funding for Amyris to grow and achieve operational profitability.

Users in Kwai Beauty account for 76.2% of the total number of buyers of top influencers, and maintain a high growth rate of 50%+. Recently, Kwai e-commerce held the Kwai Beauty Brand & Influencer Selection Event in Hangzhou. The meeting brought together over 150 brand merchants and 72 influencers. By helping to connect influencers and brands efficiently, the event achieved mutual benefits for brands and influencers. Kwai is a Chinese short video community for users to record and share their production and life. Its 2022 third quarter financial results show that Kwai's average daily active users exceeded 363 million, up 13.4% year-on-year. In 2022 first three quarters, Kwai's revenue increased by 16.3%. Beauty, an important business division of Kwai, has also achieved rapid growth this year. At the event, Li Huan, head of Kwai's e-commerce distribution business, said in his sharing that in 2022, Kwai's e-commerce beauty industry grew rapidly, with nearly 300 beauty live streams breaking 10 million yuan ($1.45 million) in GMV, an annual beauty GMV growth of 245% year-on-year in 2021, and nearly 40 influencers breaking 100 million yuan ($14.5 million) in annual turnover. At the same time, the marketing of the influencers became an important boost to pry new increments in the beauty industry. At the event, Dong Bo, head of professional e-commerce operations at Kwai, introduced the new opportunities for influencers marketing in the beauty industry at Kwai. In 2022, the beauty category saw sales of tens of billions of yuan in the live streaming, with users in Kwai Beauty accounting for 76.2% of the total number of buyers of top influencers, and maintaining a high growth rate of 50%+. The distribution segment further promotes Kwai's beauty business. According to Zhang Liwei, head of the goods aggregation center of Kwai's e-commerce distribution department, Kwai's e-commerce beauty distribution business grew across the board in 2022, with a year-on-year increase of over 269% in distribution scale, 120%+ growth in the number of distributors, over 230,000 active influencers and 300%+ growth in their revenue. CHAILEEDO notes that beauty brands are gradually deploying on the Kwai platform and achieving good results. According to the 2023 Double 11 Kwai platform ranking, DoraDoSun topped the Kwai Double 11 beauty brand list with 142 million yuan ($20.6 million), and WHOO ranked seventh in the Kwai skincare brand ranking with sales of 31 million yuan ($4.5 million). Kwai official said, next, Kwai e-commerce will integrate influencers and merchants from the operation, ecology, independent and other multi-dimension to create a list of high-quality goods, build efficient goods position, and customize the cooperation scene for stimulating new growth in business.

Dencare’s core brand Lesening has a market share of about 60% in the anti-sensitive toothpaste segment. Chongqing Dencare Oral Care Products Co.(hereinafter referred to as Dencare) updated its prospectus to continue the process of listing on the main board of Shenzhen Stock Exchange, with China Securities acting as the sponsor. Dencare was established in 2001, with two oral care brands Dencare and Lesening, as well as high-end professional oral care brand Yi Yan, children's oral care brand Beilele, high-end baby oral care brand Monyum. Its main products cover toothpaste, toothbrushes, mouthwash, and other oral cleaning care products. In June 2022, Dencare officially filed a prospectus. In terms of financial data, according to the latest prospectus, in the first half of 2022, the revenue and net profit of Denkang Oral was 611 million yuan ($88 million) and 58 million yuan ($8.4 million) respectively. In the second half of 2022, the revenue and net profit of Decare were 703 million yuan ($101.2 million) and 76 million yuan ($10.9 million) respectively. According to Nielsen's offline retail statistics for 2021, the market share of retail sales of Lesening toothpaste ranked fourth in the industry and second for local brands. In the offline sales channel, the market share of Lesening toothpaste products was 6.83% in terms of retail sales and 9.95% in terms of sales. The market share of Lesening in the anti-sensitive toothpaste segment will remain stable at around 60% of offline retail sales from 2019 to 2021 and the first half of 2022. From an industry perspective, in the oral care segment, according to Nielsen retail research data, China's toothpaste category market is relatively concentrated, with the overall sales size of the toothpaste market in 2021 at 33.98 billion ($4.9 billion), an increase of 0.86% compared to 2020. In the overall market, the top five manufacturers such as Yunnan Baiyao, DARLIE, Procter & Gamble, Dencare and Colgate have a market share of 59.50%.

Kering Group said that the fragrance licenses of its Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen have expired and will be followed by the Group's own operation of the fragrance business of the aforementioned brands. Coty Group currently holds the beauty business of Kering Group's Gucci, Bottega Veneta and other brands’ fragrance licenses. Recently, François-Henri Pinault, CEO of the Kering Group, suggested in a meeting following the announcement of the annual results that the fragrance licences of Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen had expired and that the Group would not renew the licences with Coty and would gradually recall the Group's beauty licenses. The Kering Group had said that it would develop its beauty category for its brands Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Pomellato and Qeelin, with Raffaella Cornaggia in charge of the matter. It is reported that on 3 February, Kering Group announced the creation of a new CEO position for Kering Beauty and appointed Raffaella Cornaggia, a former Estée Lauder executive, to the position, signalling the luxury group Kering's official entry into cosmetics. During this annual meeting of the Kering Group, François-Henri Pinault stressed: "The aim is to set up a platform that will enable us to develop, starting with perfume, ranges that are very consistent with the image of the houses. It's not just about having the perfumes in house, but that the image, the advertising investments be coherent with the image and the standing of the house." It is worth mentioning that the beauty business of Kering Group YSL, which is also currently in L'Oréal's hands, is valued at over €1 billion ($1.06 billion). Asked whether the YSL licence would be acquired by the L'Oréal group, François-Henri Pinault clarified that the partnership signed with L'Oréal was a long-term one and there was absolutely no risk that this licence would be taken away from L'Oréal. The statement was confirmed by Kering's Chief Executive Officer. "It's a long licence," he told reporters, and stressed that YSL is not worried about being acquired outright. "It is going very well. When I see what we manage to do with the Saint Laurent licence, which is one of the biggest licences in the world today, and then I see what we haven't done with the licences of other brands... That's also why we made the decision to create our own division."

Tiantu Capital is one of the first professional investment institutions in China and has invested in a number of cosmetic companies such as Flower Knows, HANAJIRUSHI and PUskinology. Recently, according to the official website of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the IPO status of Tiantu Capital Company Limited (hereinafter referred to as Tiantu Capital) has been shown as "lapsed", and it is no longer possible to view or download the listing application materials. Publicly available information shows that Tiantu Capital was founded in 2002. In 2008, Tiantu Capital took the lead in differentiating itself from its domestic counterparts by focusing its investment projects on the mass consumer market, with its investment projects covering three major consumer upgrading directions: innovative consumption, new retailing, and consumer finance. According to the prospectus, Tiantu Capital is the first consumer-focused investment firm in China and has invested in a total of 205 portfolio companies covering food and beverage, apparel, beauty and other sectors, which has invested in many cosmetic companies such as Flower Knows, HANAJIRUSHI and PUskinology. In 2015, Tiantu Capital was listed on the New Third Board and suspended its trading on 20 May 2022 in preparation for its listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. On June 30, 2022, Tiantu Capital formally submitted a prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to seek listing on the Hong Kong Main Board and passed the listing hearing of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in November of the same year. According to interpretation by professional people, if the company fails to complete the hearing or listing within 6 months, the prospectus will automatically lapse and the company needs to supplement the new period of financial data. But it does not mean that the IPO process is terminated, but the company needs to supplement the latest financial data and information within 3 months. According to the previous prospectus of Tiantu Capital, the prospectus showed that from 2019 to 2021, Tiantu Capital recorded total revenue and net income or loss of 683 million yuan ($98 million), 1.416 billion yuan ($203.2 million) and 808 million yuan ($116 million) respectively. While net profit was 176 million yuan ($25.3 million), 961 million yuan ($138 million) and 592 million yuan ($85 million) respectively. Compared with 2020, net profit in 2021 declined by 38.4%. For the decline in performance, Tiantu Capital said that it was mainly due to a decrease in operating income from the non-asset management business in 2021 due to the impact of the pandemic. In the first half of 2022, Tiantu Capital recorded revenue of 20.88 million yuan ($3 million) and a net gain or loss of 212 million yuan ($30.4 million).