Colgate-Palmolive To Buy French Skin Care Business For $1.69 Bln

(RTTNews) - Colgate-Palmolive Co. (CL) Thursday said it agreed to buy the Laboratoires Filorga Cosmétiques Skin Care Business for an equity purchase price of €1.50 billion or about $1.69 billion.

Colgate-Palmolive says the acquisition is part of its strategy to focus on higher-margin oral care, personal care and pet nutrition businesses and expanding its portfolio in premium skin care.

Filorga is a premium anti-aging skin care brand focused primarily on facial care. Originally founded in France in 1978, the brand is now sold in over 60 countries with its largest markets being France, Italy, Spain and Greater China.

Noel Wallace, Colgate's President and CEO said, "Filorga is a strong, premium-priced brand with distinctive positioning that fits well within our long-term personal care growth strategy. We are excited that this acquisition will add a high-growth, profitable, global skin care asset to the Colgate portfolio with the opportunity to drive continued growth through expanded distribution and awareness. This acquisition also provides Colgate entry into the fast-growing and sizeable travel retail channel, particularly in Asia."

Colgate plans to fund the acquisition with a combination of debt and cash. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter. The transaction is expected to have no impact on earnings in 2019.