L’Occitane halts trading ahead of possible buyout announcement

Cosmetics giant L’Occitane has announced that it has halted the trading of its shares pending an announcement related to takeover and merger codes.

The revelation comes amid recent media speculation suggesting that asset management firm Blackstone Inc. was circling the skincare group, mulling a bid while conducting preliminary due diligence, as Bloomberg News reported last week.

According to the media outlet, L’Occitane International’s owner Reinold Geiger and Blackstone are now said to be nearing a deal to take the company private, potentially bringing to an end its long-term listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Since the beginning of the year, L’Occitane has been under the guidance of its newly appointed chief executive officer Laurent Marteau, who joined the company as part of efforts to evolve leadership structure.

At the time of the announcement, the retailer said that it was aiming to transform itself into a “geographically balanced, multi-brand group” that delivered value for all of its stakeholders.

For the nine month period ended December 31, 2023, the company reported an 18.9 percent growth in sales, reaching 1.9 million euros across the group.

In the financial report, L’Occitane said the growth had been driven mainly by the positive performance of Elemis, the growth of L’Occitane en Provence in China and the continued outperformance of Sol de Janeiro.