L’Oréal has acquired a minority stake in independent French fashion label Jacquemus, forging an “exclusive beauty partnership” with it, the French cosmetics giant announced on Friday.
Simon Porte Jacquemus has sold a stake in his label to L’Oréal – Jacquemus
Jacquemus, a high-end label founded in 2009 by designer Simon Porte Jacquemus, is especially popular with fashionistas and celebrities, and its runway shows are always highly anticipated.
“Jacquemus will now write its beauty story with L’Oréal Luxe,” said L’Oréal in a press release.
“With its unique brand identity…, Jacquemus will perfectly complement L’Oréal Luxe’s portfolio of iconic brands, and strengthen our global leadership,” said Cyril Chapuis, CEO of L’Oréal Luxe, quoted in the press release.
“Fifteen years ago, I started dreaming and setting up Jacquemus, with perfume and beauty always featuring in my vision of the brand,” said Porte Jacquemus, adding he is “proud to pursue this dream with the world leader in beauty.”
More details about this partnership are expected from L’Oréal’s conference with analysts, scheduled for Friday morning, the day after the publication of the group’s results.
Online fast-fashion retailer Shein is set to cut its valuation in a potential London listing to around $50 billion, said three people with knowledge of the matter, nearly a quarter less than the company’s 2023 fundraising value amid growing headwinds.
The company’s business prospects have come under a cloud in recent days after the Trump administration said it would close the “de minimis” duty exemption in the United States, ending an import rule that had helped Shein keep prices low.
The measure’s removal could hurt Shein’s profitability and push up product prices in the U.S., its biggest market, analysts and industry experts have said.
The eventual IPO (initial public offering) valuation will depend on the impact of the end of de minimis on the retailer’s business, one of the people said. Given the removal only took place this week, it will take time to assess, they added.
Shein and rival Temu together probably accounted for more than 30% of all packages shipped to the U.S. each day under the de minimis provision, the U.S. congressional committee on China said in a 2023 report. The measure exempted shipments of less than $800 from import duties.
The sources declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media. Shein, founded by China-born entrepreneur Sky Xu, did not respond to a request for comment.
The removal of de minimis is part of President Donald Trump’s imposition of an additional 10% tariff on China in what he called an “opening salvo” in a clash between the world’s two largest economies.
Nearly half of all packages shipped under de minimis come from China, according to the congressional committee report.
Shein had been aiming to go public in London in the first half of this year assuming it secured approvals from regulators in the U.K. as well as in China, Reuters reported last month.
The company’s last fundraising round in 2023 valued it at $66 billion, about a third less than its peak a year earlier, sources have told Reuters.
The latest target IPO valuation would mark the retailer’s second consecutive down round, when a company takes a hair cut on its valuation during a funding round. The reasons were not immediately known.
Shein’s proposed IPO comes at a time when the UK government has been pressuring its regulators to be more pro-growth and has launched an overhaul of listing rules to make London a more attractive market to companies.
A UK government source who declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak about the deal publicly said it was still keen for Shein to launch an IPO in London. Shein confidentially filed papers with Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in early June, sources told Reuters last year. However, it has taken longer than typically expected for the regulator to sign off on the listing.
The FCA has not made any decision to approve the IPO yet, a separate person said. The FCA declined to comment.
Market experts say it usually takes several months to reach a decision. A spokesperson for the FCA previously said timelines for IPO approval depend on each individual case.
Shein shifted its plans to list in Britain last year, ending an attempt at a U.S. IPO after pushback from lawmakers concerned about alleged labour malpractices and lawsuits from competitors.
The IPO will also need approvals from Chinese regulators notably the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), sources have told Reuters.
The first January footfall report — from MRI Software — came out on Thursday and had good news for UK retail, then on Friday the British Retail Consortium released its own report and that delivered more upbeat figures.
Landsec
In conjunction with Sensormatic, the BRC said that the five weeks from 29 December up to 1 February saw total UK footfall rising year on year by 6.6%. That was compared to a 2.2% drop in December.
High Street footfall was up 4.5% in January, much better than the 2.7% decline in the previous month. Meanwhile retail parks rose by 7.9% compared to flat footfall in December. And shopping centres rose 7.4%, up from a 3.3% deficit in the previous month.
And footfall increased in all four UK nations with Wales leading the charge on 8.5%, followed by England on 7.4%, with Northern Ireland on 3.5% and Scotland rising but only by 1%.
Helen Dickinson, CEO of the British Retail Consortium, said: “Shopper footfall received a welcome boost in January following a disappointing festive period. Store visits increased substantially in the first week of the month as many consumers hit the January sales in their local community, with shopping centres faring particularly well. Despite snowy weather and Storm Eowyn causing disruption in some areas, footfall was still positive across major UK cities over the whole month
“Improved shopper traffic is welcome news for high streets following a particularly difficult ‘Golden Quarter’ to end 2024, and low consumer sentiment to start the year.”
And Andy Sumpter, Retail Consultant EMEA for Sensormatic, added: “After a dreary December, retailers will welcome January’s footfall jump. The uptick was boosted by a very strong Week 1, helped in part by New Year’s Day falling on a Wednesday, which may have prompted ambient store traffic as consumers bolted on additional days of leave, as well as retailers extending post-Christmas discounting well into January. Not even the significant disruption from Storm Eowyn was enough to dampen overall footfall performance.
“While welcome, after months of erratic and constrained footfall, the jury’s out as to whether January’s store performance signals the start of a sustained high street revival or if it will be a flash in the pan come February. And, even if shopper traffic recovery has finally turned a corner, the challenge for retailers will be solving the next conundrum; how they balance enhanced footfall – which requires optimised store staffing to convert into sales – and the significant rises to labour costs borne out of the Budget on the one hand, with consumer appetite for discounts — a long-term margin-eroder — on the other, which will not be an easy circle to square.”
Shares in French cosmetics giant L’Oréal fell by more than 4% in early trade on Friday after the company posted its slowest quarterly sales since the height of the pandemic, dragged down by weak Chinese demand.
Trading 3.9% lower at 0808 GMT, L’Oréal was the second-biggest faller on European equity markets.
The 2.5% rise in fourth-quarter sales was a slowdown from the 3.4% rise in the third quarter, and the slowest quarterly growth since 2020. Analysts had expected quarterly sales to rise more than 4%.
Speaking to analysts on Friday, finance chief Christophe Babule said the Chinese market failed to stabilise towards the end of last year. Revenues in North Asia, which includes China, were down by 3.6%, after a 6.5% decline in the prior period.
Barclays analysts said weak sales in China and a slowdown in the company’s derma division were the main factors for the earnings miss.
“We think investors will remain nervous around whether this is symptomatic of deeper structural problems until growth inflects,” the note added.
Fourth-quarter sales also grew more slowly than expected in North America, rising by 1.4%, down from growth of 5.2% in the third quarter.
The Luxe division, which markets the Valentino and Yves Saint Laurent perfumes, also missed growth expectations by 4 percentage points.
Separately, L’Oréal said on Friday it struck a deal to produce beauty products for the popular French luxury fashion label Jacquemus in which the cosmetics maker would also take a minority stake.
CFO Babule on Friday said that proceeds from selling a stake in pharma company Sanofi would give L’Oréal additional financial firepower for acquisitions.
Entertainment8 years ago