LVMH and L’Oréal SA are among the luxury consumer companies weighing offers for a stake in Aesop that may value the high-end cosmetics brand at $2 billion or more, people familiar with the matter said.
Japanese beauty group Shiseido Co. is also studying a potential bid for an interest in Aesop, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information.
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Aesop is owned by Brazilian cosmetics maker Natura & Co., which is working with Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley as it explores the sale of a stake in the business, Bloomberg News reported last year.
Deliberations are ongoing and there’s no certainty they’ll result in any offers for a stake in Aesop, according to the people. Representatives for Natura, LVMH, L’Oréal and Shiseido declined to comment.
Sao Paulo-based Natura said in October that it was assessing options to unlock value at Aesop, including a possible IPO or spinoff. Tough markets for new listings in 2022 saw the company lean toward a stake sale. The move is part of a broader overhaul being orchestrated by Fabio Barbosa, who took over as chief executive officer last year.
In November last year, Bloomberg had said that Natura reported net revenue of 9 billion reais in the third quarter, below analysts estimates of 9.29 billion reais.
It added that the company’s shares had continued to slide and remained down 55% for the year, leaving the company with a market value of about 16 billion reais.
“Unlocking value via a minority stake sale to a financial partner would be the best course of action,” Citigroup Inc. analyst Joao Pedro Soares wrote in a note, stated the November Bloomberg report. Natura “would continue to consolidate the business, and even open the door for an eventual IPO at better market conditions.”
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