Coty completes acquisition of Hypermarcas’ beauty & personal care division

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Feb 2, 2016

Beauty manufacturer Coty announced on Tuesday the completion the final stage of its purchase of Brazilian Hypermarcas' beauty and personal care business. The deal, which includes brands such as Monange, Risqué, Bozzano, Paixão and Biocolor, gives Coty a strong position in Brazil, which is the third largest beauty market in the world.

“The Beauty Business provides us with leading brands, state-of-the-art manufacturing and distribution facilities and strong go-to-market capabilities, and will be an important part of Coty’s portfolio going forward,” said Bart Becht, Chairman and Interim CEO of Coty.

The purchase comes amidst industry claims that the transaction gives Coty an unfair advantage over its rivals, as the beauty company is also expected to complete a merger transaction with Procter & Gamble’s Specialty Beauty Business.

In December, German beauty company Henkel filed a request with Brazilian antitrust regulators to review the decision to approve the purchase of Hypermarcas’ beauty and care unit, stating that the combined effect of the transactions would give Coty  as much as a 35% market share in Brazil’s hair coloring market.

The New York-based company, which holds perfume and make-up licences for brands such as Adidas, Calvin Klein,Chloé, DAVIDOFF, Marc Jacobs,  OPI, philosophy, Playboy, Rimmel and Sally Hansen, paid  Hypermarcas about $1 billion for its personal-care and beauty division.

The completion of the merger with P&G cosmetics unit, including some 40 beauty brands, is expected in the second half of 2016.