The Beauty Care M&A market finished the year on a high note with 30 transactions in Q4’17, bringing total transactions to over 100 for the second straight year. Not only was volume strong, the quarter witnessed a rash of high-profile strategic M&A transactions, with deals announced from Procter & Gamble, Kao, Unilever, Colgate, Henkel, Shiseido and The Hut Group.
As we look into the 2018 crystal ball, we anticipate more of the same—nearly all the strategic buyers are active, new private equity (PE) backed platforms have been formed and PE remains in love with the beauty care sector.
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Finally, Intrepid finished the year strong having advised on two deals in Q4’17—the acquisition of Native by Procter & Gamble and the acquisition of Aware Products by Vee Pak.
Q4’17 Beauty Care M&A highlights include:
- Deal volume increased 25% from Q4’16 and 11% from Q3’17.
- The most active acquirers of 2017 continued to be a force in Q4, including Unilever with two deals and The Hut Group with one.
- Procter & Gamble re-entered the M&A game with the purchase of Native, its first acquisition in almost
10 years. - Kao also re-engaged in M&A activity for the first time since 2005 with the acquisition of Oribe Hair Care from Luxury Brand Partners.
- Colgate-Palmolive put its mark on the quarter and the professional skin care world with acquisitions of both EltaMD and PCA Skin.
- PE was active as well with deals from Tengram, TSG Consumer, Eurazeo and CITC.
- Contract manufacturing continued to witness strong M&A activity.
Here is to a very Happy New Year and hopefully another 100 deals in 2018!