Procter & Gamble Agrees to Sell Beauty Businesses--Update

By Chelsey Dulaney 

Procter & Gamble Co. agreed to sell its beauty brands to Coty Inc. in a deal valued at $12.5 billion.

The transaction includes P&G's global salon professional hair care and color, retail hair color, cosmetics and fine fragrance businesses, along with select hair styling brands.

P&G shareholders will own 52% of all outstanding shares on a fully diluted basis, while Coty's existing shareholders would own 48% percent of the combined company.

P&G said it would prefer to structure deal as a "Reverse Morris Trust," which is used by big U.S. companies looking to shed unwanted divisions without paying hefty taxes. The deals combine a tax-free spinoff with a prearranged merger.

Coty Inc. made a $10.7 billion offer for Avon Products Inc. in early 2012 but withdrew the offer after Avon failed to engage in a timely manner. It filed to go public about a year later and started trading in June 2013.

Coty has been acquisitive in recent years, snapping up nail-polish company OPI Products and skincare-products brand Philosophy in 2010 for about $1 billion each, among other deals.

Write to Chelsey Dulaney at [e-mail]

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