Puig, the family-owned Spanish beauty conglomerate, announced plans for an initial public offering on the stock exchanges in Barcelona, Madrid, Bilbao and Valencia. The company owns 14 brands including Charlotte Tilbury, Paco Rabanne and Byredo, as well as a number of fragrance licences.
The company hopes to raise €1.25 billion ($1.3 billion) through the first round of IPO, followed by a larger secondary sale that would bring the total fundraising north of €2.5 billion. The Puig family will retain a majority stake in the company and the “vast” majority of voting rights, the company said.
In 2023, Puig reported net revenues of €4.3 billion ($4.6 billion), up 19 percent, while net profit rose to €465 million ($503 million), up 16 percent on the previous year.
In October 2023, chairman Marc Puig confirmed the group was mulling an IPO among other strategic options to raise fresh capital. In a statement released today, Marc Puig said the decision was a “decisive step” in the company’s 110-year history, and that it was important to ensure the “right checks and balances” were in place during a “generational transition.”
“We believe that the balance of being a family-owned company that is also subject to market accountability will allow us to better compete in the international beauty market during the next phase of the company’s development,” said Marc Puig, adding that being a publicly listed company will align its corporate structure with those of best-in-class, family-owned companies in the global premium beauty sector. Top industry players such as L’Oréal and Estée Lauder have long been publicly traded, as well as retaining founding family ownership stakes.
The company plans to further diversify into skincare and makeup, and focus on prioritising brands it owns outright rather than licenses, which can be expensive to renew and disruptive when they lapse. 95 percent of revenues came from fully-owned or majority-owned brands like Paco Rabanne, Dries Van Noten or Nina Ricci last year, Puig said.
The company has been making more acquisitions of late – in January, it purchased luxury skincare brand Dr. Barbara Sturm, following its acquisitions of Byredo and Charlotte Tilbury since 2020.
“Our unique and creative DNA has allowed us to attract leading founders and brands… We strongly believe that building premium brands requires long-term thinking,” Marc Puig said.
Currently, fragrance is Puig’s largest revenue driver. But the group’s smallest segment, skincare, grew the most in 2023, with revenues up 31 percent to €431 million ($466 million). The company has long been profitable, Puig added.
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