L’Oréal, the world’s leading beauty company, today announced the signing of an agreement with private equity firm Castanea Partners to acquire Urban Decay.
Financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed, however the Wall Street Journal, citing a person familiar with the matter, said L’Oréal is paying between 300 and 400 million USD.
Based in Newport Beach California and created in 1996, Urban Decay has star products in the eye category such as the Naked Palette and recently successfully launched its new foundation, the Naked Skin weightless liquid make-up.
The brand is popular among the youthful highly-involved cutting-edge consumers who are attracted by the fashion-forward image of the brand. In the fiscal year ended in June 2012, Urban Decay recorded net sales of 130 million US dollars.
"It is totally additional to our existing propositions and as such it will contribute significantly to the growth of the Division in the years to come," said Nicolas Hieronimus, President L’Oréal Luxe.
Urban Decay is distributed in the assisted self-service channel which includes among others Ulta and Sephora. According to L’Oréal, Urban Decay is also strong in e-commerce with www.urbandecay.com and www.sephora.com.
Earlier this year, Urban Decay had announced its decision to pull out of the Chinese market due to the country’s animal testing policies.
