April 27, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Beautiful Color, the subsidiary of a private equity fund backed by French multinational luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, has invested 56.6 billion won (US$49.83 million) in CLIO Cosmetics, the Korean makeup firm said on April 14.

CLIO will issue 1,351,245 shares and offer them to the Singapore-based subsidary of L Capital Asia Advisors.

Beautiful Color invested 57.30 billion won in CLIO last year, acquiring 1,114,785 redeemable convertible preference shares with a put option that entitled it to collect the money one year after it went public. Instead of cashing out, it has reinvested the entire money it redeemed. 

CLIO posted 25.7 billion won operating profit in 2016. Revenue reached 193.6 billion won with net profit of 20.8 billion won. 

The beauty company has set its revenue target this year at 290 billion won. It has completed market research with L Capital and plans to expand this year. 

Sephora, a beauty emporium chain operated by LVMH, will be a major channel for the expansion plan. CLIO is already available at over 100 Sephora outlets across the world and will be available at 100 stores in China during the first half of this year. 

By Hwang You-mee (glamazon@heraldcorp.com)