L’Oréal, the world cosmetics giant, with a capitalization of 223,000 million euros, has carried out the largest acquisition in its history. It has been done with the Australian brand Aesop, belonging to the Brazilian Natura, for 2,500 million euros. An operation that the French economic newspaper Les Échos has described as “madness”.
According to analysts, through this acquisition L’Oréal manages to add to its offer (which includes, among others, brands such as Lancôme and Yves Saint-Laurent) a luxury natural cosmetics firm with strong development potential in China -where has just entered–, which will allow it to consolidate its international expansion. “The French cosmetics group is known for buying up emerging brands and scaling them through its global distribution network,” said Ian Simpson, an analyst at Barclays, estimating that Aesop will add about 1.2% to organic sales of L’ Pray this year. A trifle, but destined to increase.
Aesop, founded in 1987, is known for its skin, hair and body products and is currently the most profitable firm in the Natura group (which is now struggling after the pandemic), has almost 400 stores and registered sales of 490 million euros in 2022, 21% more than a year earlier. In turn, L’Oréal achieved in 2022 an increase of 24.1% in its net profit, up to 5,700 million euros, and 18.5% of its sales, up to 38,300 million.
