L’Oréal Enters Talks With Natura to Sell The Body Shop for $1.1B

PARIS – L’Oréal has found a buyer for The Body Shop. The French beauty giant has entered into exclusive negotiations with Brazil’s Natura to sell the underperforming activity after announcing earlier this year that it was looking at strategic options. Natura has made a firm offer for The Body Shop, L’Oréal stated, valuing the brand and retailer at 1 billion euros, or $1.12 billion, at current exchange rates. “I am very pleased to announce Natura as the potential new ‘home’ for The Body Shop. It is the best new owner we could imagine to nurture the brand DNA around naturality and ethics,” L’Oréal chairman and chief executive officer Jean-Paul Agon said. “Natura will support The Body Shop development in the long-term and enable The Body Shop to best serve its customers while respecting its strong commitments towards its employees, franchisees and stakeholders,” he added. Natura, Brazil’s largest home-grown beauty company, has been endeavoring to decrease its focus on its domestic direct-sales activity in recent years by growing its international presence. As part of this strategy, it purchased a majority stake in Australian brand Aesop in 2012, and bought out the remainder of the company last year. “With this transaction, the Natura Group will have three

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