Cosmetics giant snaps up French perfumery

Korean cosmetics giant Amore Pacific Group acquired French luxury perfume brand Annick Goutal as part of its move to generate greater profits by expanding further into overseas markets, the company announced yesterday.

Amore Pacific Global Operations Ltd, the wholly owned overseas subsidiary of Amore Pacific, sealed a takeover deal with Starwood Capital in France on Tuesday local time.

Though the exact sum of the buyout was not disclosed, market watchers believe Amore Pacific invested 30 billion won ($28 million) to assume full control of Annick Goutal’s shares.

This is the first time Amore Pacific has purchased a foreign cosmetics brand through such a merger, but not its first dealing with either the country or the product.

It launched its own perfume brand, Lorita Lempika, in 1997 and produces it at a factory in France.

Annick Goutal, named after the late pianist-turned-model who launched the brand, has a presence in more than 20 international markets, and can be found at Harrods in London and Saks Fifth Avenue in New York. It raised 20 billion won in global sales revenue last year, Amore Pacific said.

“Annick Goutal perfumes are also available in Asian markets like Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore,” said Ju Jae-heung, an Amore Pacific employee. But the brand “has not yet officially launched in the Korean market, so now we are considering whether to bring its products [here] ,” Ju added.

“We hope the acquisition will pave the way for us to go global in the long term,” Ju said. “In terms of market share, Annick Goutal is not a top-10 brand in France because it targets a niche luxury market.”

Amore Pacific is Korea’s leading cosmetics company, recording 370 billion won in operating profit and 2.67 trillion won of revenue last year.

It derives 14 percent of its total revenue from overseas but aims to boost this to 29 percent by 2015, when it hopes to break inside the world’s top 10 cosmetics firms.

By Kim Mi-ju [mijukim@joongang.co.kr]

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