Shiseido to sell personal-care unit to CVC for $1.5 billion

Shiseido Co. agreed will sell its shampoo and affordable skin-care business to CVC Capital Partners for $1.5 billion, as it shifts more focus to making and selling high-end skin products.

Under the deal, Shiseido will transfer its personal-care business to a holding company where CVC is an investor. Shiseido will then acquire a 35 percent stake in the holding company that will operate the business. CVC will oversee the new company, which may go public in the future.

The transfer price of the business and assets are valued at 160 billion yen with a transfer date set for July 2021.

The Japanese beauty giant has been revamping its portfolio with the pandemic changing cosmetic and personal care routines.

Among the businesses to be divested are its drugstore brands, including Tsubaki hair-care products and Senka face wash.

Shiseido has been contemplating about the future of its personal care business as it had not been able to give it the marketing and research and development resources it needed to grow.

The lifestyle and personal care business represented about 10 percent of Shiseido’s revenue in 2019, with annual sales of about 100 billion yen.

According to Shiseido CEO Masahiko Uotani, CVC and other groups have approached them about acquiring the segment. But he thought at that time that it was too premature to even when they began feeling the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Uotani noted that the personal care business model is very different from its focus as a beauty company.