Coty to Acquire Hairstyling-Appliance Maker GHD for $511 Million

(Bloomberg) -- Coty Inc. agreed to buy the London-based hairstyling-appliances company GHD for 420 million pounds ($511 million) in cash, expanding its offerings in the professional hair category.

The British company, whose name is short for “Good Hair Day,” will be acquired from investment firm Lion Capital LLP. The business has increased global sales 30 percent over the past three years, bringing in 178 million pounds in revenue during fiscal year 2016, according to a statement on Monday. GHD sells hair straighteners, dryers and curlers at salons and high-end retailers, as well as online.

The deal marks Coty’s first acquisition since it completed the purchase earlier this month of 41 Procter & Gamble Co. beauty brands, including Gucci fragrances, CoverGirl cosmetics and Max Factor makeup. That deal made Coty the world’s third-biggest cosmetics company and the largest in fragrance.

The GHD transaction takes advantage of the British pound’s decline, said Jason Gere, an analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. Still, it means one more thing for Coty to digest.

“It does add another element to an increasingly full plate for management to handle right now,” he said.

Coty shares gained 0.4 percent to $23.43 in New York on Monday. The stock had declined 8.9 percent this year through the end of last week.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephanie Wong in New York at swong139@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, John Lear