The Beauty Care M&A market remained strong in Q2’17 with 23 transactions, including deal activity from high-profile strategic acquirers such as Unilever, Estée Lauder, and L’Oréal. In addition, private equity beauty care platforms continued to thrive as new ones formed and old ones changed hands. The Beauty Care M&A market also continued to see an influx of minority investments and an increasing volume of early-stage venture funding.
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However, the nine quarter streak of increases in deal volume over the prior year period ended with Q2’17 deal volume down slightly over both Q2’16 and Q1’17. Given the high deal volume and continued deal activity, we do not see this as a sign of a slowing Beauty Care M&A market—simply as an unsustainable trend and the end to a fun statistic to watch over the last two years.
Q2’17 Beauty Care M&A highlights include:
- Deal volume declined 15% in Q2’17 from Q2’16 and 8% from Q1’17.
- Unilever continued to be a force on the Beauty Care M&A front with the acquisitions of both Hourglass and Quala’s personal care brands.
- L’Oréal was in a rare position as the seller with an agreement to divest The Body Shop to Natura Cosmeticos.
- Both Ares and Winona Capital entered the beauty care sector with platform investments while established platform PDC Brands found a new private equity partner in CVC Capital Partners.
- Minority investments remained popular with notable investments from both private equity groups (L Catterton and Sequoia Capital) and traditional strategic acquirers (Estée Lauder and L’Occitane).