(Boursier.com) — L’Oreal point up slightly (+0.4% to 417.2 euros) after the announcement of the acquisition of Aesop, the Australian brand of luxury cosmetics. Corridor rumors about such a deal had been circulating in the trading rooms for several weeks. The operation reaches 2.525 billion dollars, in enterprise value. Aesop is distributed in approximately 400 exclusive outlets in America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Asia. The group, which until now belonged to the Brazilian Natura & Co, achieved revenues of 537 million dollars last year, up 21% year on year (at constant exchange rates).
For Oddo BHF (‘neutral’), this operation will undeniably enable L’Oréal to strengthen its operational footprint in Beauty by adding a skincare brand positioned in the premium segment with an exclusive distribution network on all continents. , apart from Africa. This is what investors expect from a pure player; deepen its operational footprint in order to better capture the underlying growth by being in all segments, all ranges, all channels and with a portfolio of dedicated brands. The price of 2.5 MdE, or 5x the turnover, is nonetheless high and makes the relevance of this operation based on growth synergies, explains the analyst. Given the group’s track record (CeraVe), investors should nevertheless give credit to the group. But the share’s reaction should be relatively neutral: the accretive impact on EPS should be less than 1% over a full year in the short term and the share has a very high PER 23 (36x) compared to pure Food players HPC Spirits in Europe and the USA which trade in a range of 21x to 25x.
Jefferies (‘underperforming’) says the acquisition represents a shift in strategy for L’Oreal, which has typically acquired brands at an early stage in their development to reap significant revenue synergies. However, the broker identifies “a few white spots”, including China, alongside travel retail and perfumes.
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