Henkel Shares Fall After Coty Reported to Buy P&G Beauty Units

CINCINNATI, United States — Henkel AG, the maker of Schwarzkopf shampoo, declined on reports that Coty Inc. had won the race to acquire three of Procter & Gamble Co.'s beauty businesses.

Henkel had been seen as the frontrunner to buy Wella, P&G’s haircare unit, people familiar with the talks told Bloomberg News May 22. Shares in the Dusseldorf-based company fell as much as 2.4 percent.

Coty, which makes Calvin Klein and Adidas fragrances, won the auction for the haircare unit and two beauty lines in deals which could reach a combined $12 billion, the New York Post reported. The structure of the deal sees Coty buying a little less than a majority stake while running the combined operations, allowing P&G to avoid paying capital gains tax on the deal, the newspaper said.

Chief Executive Officer Kasper Rorsted played down the importance of acquiring Wella for Henkel to reach its growth targets in an interview with Germany’s Die Welt newspaper on Sunday, before Coty’s successful bid was reported.

Henkel shares were trading 2.3 percent lower at 102.05 euros as of 9:21 a.m. in Frankfurt, valuing the company at about 41 billion euros.

While based in New York, Coty is controlled by Germany’s billionaire Reimann family.

By Alex Webb; editors: Simon Thiel, Andrew Noël.