US beauty products powerhouse The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) and Spanish fragrances to fashion house Puig have terminated discussions regarding a potential business combination.
On 23 March the two groups said they were talking about a deal to potentially merge their businesses, without assurances over a deal or its terms.
Today the parties said they had ended those discussions. The Estée Lauder Companies said it remains “fully focused on continuing to execute its Beauty Reimagined strategy, which is well underway and delivering positive results”.
“We are grateful for the conversations we have had with Puig,” said The Estée Lauder Companies President and Chief Executive Officer Stéphane de La Faverie. “Today, we are reiterating our confidence in the power of our incredible brands, our talented teams, and our strength as a standalone company.
“We are more optimistic than ever about our ability to unlock significant long-term value through Beauty Reimagined, and we remain focused on accelerating that progress.”
He added, “We have one of the most powerful portfolios of prestige beauty brands in the world, supported by exceptional equity across categories, geographies, and consumer segments, and we believe we are uniquely positioned to drive sustainable long-term growth globally.
“The momentum we are seeing across our business reinforces the strength of the path ahead. Through Beauty Reimagined and the implementation of our ‘One ELC’ operating model, we are building a faster, more agile, consumer-focused organisation — one that is accelerating innovation, strengthening execution, scaling winning ideas globally and investing behind the highest-growth opportunities across our portfolio.
“At the same time, we will continue to evaluate and evolve our portfolio to ensure we have the right assets to drive the most compelling growth opportunities, including both potential acquisitions and divestitures.
“We remain relentlessly focused on driving sustainable sales growth, expanding profitability, and delivering a solid double-digit adjusted operating margin over time, all while creating long-term value for stockholders.”
A merger would have created a US$40 billion beauty giant, according to Financial Times.
Click here for our analysis on The Estée Lauder Companies’ encouraging third-quarter performance.
