L’Occitane owner plans second try to take company private, sources say

The chairman and controlling shareholder of skincare company L’Occitane International is planning again to take the company private, just a few months after he shelved a buyout attempt, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday (Apr 9).

Austrian billionaire Reinold Geiger is in advanced discussions with investors and lenders about the deal and an announcement could be made in coming days, said one of the people.

US private equity giant Blackstone is looking to provide debt financing to fund Geiger’s plan to take the Hong Kong-listed company private, said the two sources, both declining to be named as the information was private.

The US$5.55-billion French cosmetics company halted trading in its Hong Kong shares earlier in the day ahead of a likely announcement spelling out details on any takeover plans.

The two sources cautioned however that deal terms were not finalised and the plan may not proceed.

A L’Occitane spokesperson declined to comment beyond the company’s stock market filing on Tuesday. The company also declined to answer a Reuters query sent to Geiger via it. Blackstone declined to comment.

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It was not immediately clear what potential price Geiger was preparing to offer. Dealogic data in March showed that the average offer price for Hong Kong-listed companies since 2012 was 24% over the company’s average share price in the previous month.

Bloomberg News reported earlier on Tuesday that Blackstone was closing in on a deal to take L’Occitane private and may join hands with Geiger.

Geiger had decided against a deal to take the company private last September, triggering a drag in the shares.

The buyout offer came from Geiger’s investment holding company, L’Occitane Groupe, when Hong Kong emerged as an epicentre of buyout deals and several companies from the West were looking to boost exposure in the rapidly growing Chinese market.

The company said in August if a deal were to go through, the potential offer price would be no less than HK$26.00 (S$4.46) per share.

L’Occitane listed in Hong Kong in 2010, and was one of the first Western companies to sell its primary shares in the Asian financial hub at the time. REUTERS