In June, hedge fund Third Point said it had taken a stake in Nestlé and encouraged the company to sell its stake in L'Oréal, the French cosmetics company controlled by the Bettencourt family. L'Oréal's stock rose almost 4%, as investors speculated that it might sell its 9% stake in pharmaceutical company Sanofi to buy out Nestlé,
a
Financial Times
report said.
Nestlé first acquired a stake in L'Oréal in 1974, when the Bettencourts sought an outside investor because they feared L'Oréal would be nationalized, the
FT
article said. In 2014, the two companies made a deal for Nestlé to gain full control of their joint venture in the Galderma skincare line. At that time, Nestlé reduced its stake in L'Oréal from 29.4% to 23.3%, and the Bettencourts increased their holding from 30.6% to 33%, the article said.
L'Oréal CEO Jean-Paul Agon told the
FT
that the stability of the holdings of the Bettencourts and Nestlé enabled the company to increase its investments in technology and product development during the recession.
“L'Oréal is unlikely to buy back the entire Nestlé stake and cancel the shares,” the
FT
article said. “One issue is that doing so would push the Bettencourt family's holding above the level at which it must launch a mandatory takeover. This could mean applying to the French regulator for a special exemption so it did not have to do so, or selling shares to take it below the mandatory takeover threshold.”
The Bettencourt family has not sold any shares in L'Oréal since the 1974 deal with Nestlé, the
FT
report said.
Nestlé is prohibited from buying all of L'Oréal until six months after the death of the family's matriarch, Liliane Bettencourt. She is now 94, the report noted. (Source:
Financial Times
, July 1-2, 2017.)
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