If Coty doesn't want AVP they IMO will eventually want something in the space. They will have some 2 billion to spend from equity backers. Elizabeth ARDEN fits that Cap space, but I'll just be a watcher for now. The cosmetics group as a whole seems to be slowing, but a good area IMO if the economy stays slow.
Offering Is Possible Next Move For Coty By MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED
 Christopher Polk/Getty Images for CotyJennifer Lopez and Bernd Beetz, the chief of Coty, celebrate the introduction of the company’s new perfume, Glowing by JLo.
Coty has selected underwriters for an initial public offering, according to people briefed on the matter, only two days after withdrawing a $10.7 billion takeover bid for Avon Products.
Any offering is likely to value Coty at about $7 billion to $8 billion, and could raise as much as $1 billion.
In choosing to go public, Coty is reviving a plan it had been following before trying to merge with its much bigger competitor. The cosmetics company, which is owned by the German conglomerate Joh. A. Benckiser, had considered staging an initial public offering as recently as last year.
By staging an initial offering, Coty — a 108-year-old cosmetics maker that has grown from perfumes into a global purveyor of fragrances and high-end nail polishes — would give its parent company a chance to cash out on its investment. Among Coty’s owners is the Reimann family, one of Europe’s wealthiest clans, which owns luxury brands like Bally and Derek Lam as well as the consumer products company Reckitt Benckiser.
But interest in an I.P.O. became sidetracked late last year when Coty began holding talks with Avon about a potential merger. Under one plan that was discussed at the time, Avon would have bought its smaller rival using mostly stock, effectively giving Coty a publicly traded currency.
A deal with Avon would have given Coty a foothold in makeup items like eye shadow and body products, adding to a slew of products endorsed by the likes of Beyoncé and Jennifer Lopez. It would also have given Coty access to a new business model, namely Avon’s army of direct-sales representatives, which has succeeded in emerging markets like Brazil.
And a merger would have given Coty the heft executives felt it needed to compete more directly with the giants of the cosmetics industry, L’Oréal and Estée Lauder.
At the same time, it would have helped install a new management team at Avon, which had been looking to replace its chief executive amid an investigation into potential bribery by company executives around the world.
Yet by early this year, talks between the two companies had grown cold. So by March, Coty approached Avon with a new proposal, in which Coty would have become the acquirer.
That did not sit well with Avon, which began preparing a takeover defense. Coty took its bid public last month, hoping to apply pressure by appealing to shareholders.
Investors appeared skeptical of the proposal, however, unsure of both Coty’s ability to buy a company more than twice its size and Avon board’s willingness to sell. Avon’s stock price largely remained below Coty’s proposed takeover price.
Even the disclosure last week of Warren E. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway as a backer of the bid did not seem to sway shareholders.
On Monday evening, Coty ended its monthlong takeover campaign. Shares of Avon plunged on Tuesday.
Now a prospectus for a Coty initial public offering could be filed within weeks, meaning that the offering would be on track to price in the fall. The cosmetics products company has picked Bank of America Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan Chase as its lead underwriters, these people said.
Also, a spokeswoman for Coty declined to comment.
dealbook.nytimes.com |
