Women’s Wear Daily | What to Expect from Beauty M&A in 2024

Dec 2023

Originally posted by Women’s Wear Daily on December 8, 2023.

Many expect beauty brands to come to market in 2024, but the exact timing will be contingent on several dynamics.

Ashleigh Barker, Director in Lincoln’s Consumer Group, believes that the deal pipeline remains and transactions that were forecasted for Q4 2023 will most likely launch in H1 2024.

“Businesses are taking their time to hit their forecasts, to make sure their retail wins are secured, that they have demonstrated proof points achieving profitability or a very clearly visible path to having a sustainable profit margin opportunity,” Ashleigh added.

Private equity is predicted to be an interested party in beauty assets next year, but strategics do remain active.

In terms of attractive categories, consumers continue to have an increased demand for clinically backed skin care. Color cosmetics and fragrances are potentially appealing categories as well.

“There’s still a renewed and heightened interest around fragrance,” said Ashleigh. “We saw three large transactions get done this year. There’s a lot of eyes on the up-and-coming brands that play to the clean category and some of the more niche artisanal fragrances. They still need more time to scale, but are definitely on the radar for strategics.”

View additional insights in the original article.