mottusbeauty.com

On Thursday, Clarins’ stock was suspended from trading in Paris. Early reports are that another company may acquire the high-end skincare house. Speculation for potential merger partners have been long rumored and the usual suspects include Procter & Gamble, L’Oreal and Shiseido among others.

The Courtin-Clarins family has controlling interest and has intimated that it was not looking for a partner nor was in the need of cash or management assistance. Moreover, Clarins recently recruited the highly-thought of Philip Shearer, who was a group president at Estee Lauder.

But the global scene is becoming more suited for huge beauty and luxury conglomerates and Clarins in that arena is a small player. There are several interesting partners that could broaden Clarins’ reach and offer the Courtin-Clarins’ family continued involvement and major ownership.

Leslie Wexner, founder and CEO of The Limited, has approached Clarins and its financial partner L’Occitane in the past. L’Occitane has 1,000 retail stores and a volume of approximately $500 million and is a leader in natural and organic cosmetics. Wexner could split out Bath & Body Works and combine it with L’Occitane and/or Clarins to become a larger, worldwide freestanding beauty retailer.

Alain Wertheimer, whose family owns Chanel, has a large interest in Ulta, while Bernard Arnault’s LVMH owns Sephora. Obviously these French billionaires have hedged their beauty bets to include specialty retailers. Wexner is also a billionaire, and his retail expertise is legendary and one cannot underestimate the man’s ability to create new opportunities.

Another leading cosmetic family controls Coty, and they are the Benckiser heirs who have floated the idea of going public. The Benckiser heirs under Peter Harf, Coty CEO, merged Benckiser’s household products into Reckitt, making it a huge world player.

The most often rumored candidate to take Clarins over is L’Oreal, whose management has coveted Clarins for twenty years. However, the world’s largest beauty company is in the process of acquiring Yves St. Laurent Beaute, which will be finalized on July 1, and the integration of another prestige brand could have anti-trust implications.

Of course, Louis Vuitton, Moet Hennessy could combine Clarins easily into its perfume and beauty empire as well. The question though is intriguing and more than likely we will learn the fate of Clarins and the direction that the overall prestige category will take shortly.