Coty purchase of P&G assets may take two weeks to finalise

U.S. cosmetics group Coty has won auctions to acquire three businesses from Procter & Gamble Co for as much as $12 billion, but details of the company's acquisition could take at least two weeks to be finalised, sources close to the matter said on Tuesday.

Reuters reported last week that Henkel & Co and Coty, both of which have personal care and cosmetics businesses, made binding offers to buy separate parts of P&G's beauty businesses.

And on the weekend, Coty won the weekend valuing the businesses at close to $12 billion, the sources said. If it goes through, it would be the biggest deal in cosmetics in at least a decade and would turn Coty into a world leader in perfume and hair care.

P&G, the world's largest household products maker, has been looking to sell several assets it considers non-core as part of its cost-cutting strategy.

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Coty, which has a market value of $9.39 billion and makes perfume for fashion brands Calvin Klein and Marc Jacobs and owns nail polish brand OPI and Rimmel mascara, has been looking to expand its products portfolio.

For tax purposes, the transaction is to be completed through a "Reverse Morris Trust," which means that P&G would spin off its beauty assets into a separate company that would then absorb Coty in an all-share deal, the sources said.
In turn, the newly combined company would then redistribute shares to P&G shareholders.

Luxembourg-based JAB Holdings, the billionaire Reimann family's investment company which controls 75 percent of Coty, would own about a third of the equity in the newly combined business and about 47-48 percent of the voting rights, the sources said.

P&G and Coty could not be immediately reached for comment.

With the acquisition of the Gucci, Hugo Boss and Dolce & Gabbana perfume licences, Coty would become the world's No.1 perfume maker ahead of L'Oreal, according to consultancy Euromonitor.

The transaction would mark Coty's entry into the hair care market, dominated by the Wella and Clairol brands it will buy from P&G. With make-up brands Cover Girl and Max Factor, Coty would become the second biggest make-up company behind L'Oreal, up from its previous ranking of No. 5.