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Kylie Jenner-Coty Deal Led by Little-Known Adviser Tiger Chark

Kylie Jenner-Coty Deal Led by Little-Known Adviser Tiger Chark

(Bloomberg) -- A deal by one the world’s largest makeup brands to back a venture by a member of reality television’s royal family was a coup for a little-known firm that advised Coty Inc.

When Coty announced its $600 million investment for the majority stake in Kylie Jenner’s cosmetics company this week, it said it tapped Tiger Chark LLC, an adviser that had not been publicly connected to a deal before.

Tiger Chark acted as a matchmaker connecting Coty to Kylie Jenner, a member of the Kardashian-Jenner clan, and also as a brand consultant, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the matter is private.

Tiger Chark wasn’t involved in the deal negotiations and is not a financial adviser in the traditional sense, the people added.

Lisa Manice, Tiger Chark’s founder, has worked with Coty and Peter Harf, the chairman of Coty’s majority owner JAB Holdings BV, for some time, one of the people said.

“When Peter Harf told us about the executive team’s vision for Coty’s future, we began exploring opportunities and soon came to believe that Kylie would be the perfect fit,” Manice said in an e-mailed statement.

A Coty representative declined to comment.

Tiger Chark, based in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, was founded in 2016 by Manice, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

The firm is a “strategic brand consulting firm” that develops “broad visions for consumer products,” Manice said.

She added that the firm provides “millennial insight with the sage advice of industry experts.”

Manice was listed as a co-chairwoman of a May event hosted by a blood cancer charity started by Harf.

The services on its pastel-shaded website include capital raising, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, licensing, brand growth and business development.

Joanna Baker de Neufville, the firm’s second in command, was co-chief operating officer at footwear company Tamara Mellon, a namesake brand founded by a co-founder of Jimmy Choo. Baker de Neufville was an analyst at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. from 2001 to 2003, according to her LinkedIn profile.

The firm has five employees listed on LinkedIn.

--With assistance from Polly Mosendz and Sonali Basak.

To contact the reporters on this story: Crystal Tse in New York at ctse44@bloomberg.net;Kim Bhasin in New York at kbhasin4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Liana Baker at lbaker75@bloomberg.net, Michael Hytha

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