(News Bulletin 247) – The main shareholder of the beauty products company has made an offer to buy back the shares it lacks with a view to removing the group from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The main shareholder of the beauty products company L’Occitane, the Austrian billionaire Reinold Geiger, has submitted an offer to buy back all the shares he does not hold for nearly 1.7 billion euros, according to a press release published on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, where the group is listed.
The offer, submitted with the support of the American private equity giant Blackstone, concerns nearly 28% of the shares, values the company at around 6 billion euros and aims to delist it.
“The maximum amount of the offer” should reach 13.9 billion Hong Kong dollars, or nearly 1.7 billion euros, the press release said.
Founded in 1976 in Manosque (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) by Olivier Baussan, an eco-literature student, the company known for its skin products and perfumes raised more than $700 million during its IPO in Hong Kong in 2010, riding on optimism for a booming Chinese consumer market. Its price peaked in 2022 at 32.45 Hong Kong dollars.
A group about to be “liberated from the pressures of the financial market”
The group’s portfolio included at the end of 2023 L’Occitane en Provence, the French brand Melvita, the Korean line Erborian and Elemis, a British brand. L’Occitane has nearly 3,000 points of sale in some 90 countries, including 1,300 directly owned stores.
During its last published financial year, which ended on March 31, 2023, the group achieved 2.1 billion euros in turnover for a profit of 118 million, down almost 50% year-on-year. .
Companies controlled by Reinold Geiger currently hold more than 72% of the capital of L’Occitane, whose trading has been suspended in Hong Kong since April 9.
By not being listed, “the company would be better placed” to respond to current “concerns” – including increased competition in its first market in China – notes the stock market document detailing the reasoning for the offer, and this, “freed from financial market pressures” and “transparency obligations” and “without having to devote commercial and administrative resources to maintaining the short-term value of its share price”.
(With AFP)
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