L’Oréal buys Valeant brands to improve its Fountain of Youth positioning
Several of our investment themes have tailwinds that can be polar opposites, while others are complimentary like our Aging of the Population and Fountain of Youth themes. As more people age, more of them try to fight the effects of aging and look younger. That’s been a boon for skin-care products and unsurprisinlgy they’ve been growing faster than the overall personal care products long dominated by Proctor & Gamble, Colgate Palmolive and Church & Dwight. Growth attracts buyers and that is what we have with L’Oréal buying skin-care brands from Valeant Pharmaceuticals.
L’Oréal SA plans to buy CeraVe and two other skin-care brands from Valeant Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $1.3 billion, expanding the French cosmetics firm’s U.S. presence and deepening its portfolio in a product segment that has become the beauty industry’s largest.
Companies across multiple industries—beauty, consumer goods and pharmaceuticals—are battling to stake a claim in the skin-care business, which is highly coveted because of its crossover appeal as both a medical and beauty product. In 2015, Unilever purchased four skin-care brands, including Ren and Murad, while Nestlé last year formed a joint venture with the maker of Proactiv, one of the world’s top-selling acne treatments.
For nearly a decade, skin care has outgrown the wider beauty and personal-care market, according to data tracker Euromonitor International. Skin care is now the beauty industry’s largest category, accounting for a quarter of the market, but growth has begun to cool in recent years.
Source: L’Oréal Looks to Gain U.S. Share by Buying Valeant Brands – WSJ
