Coty Buying P&G Beauty Business for $12.5 Billion

Coty Inc, the U.S. maker of Calvin Klein and Chloe perfume, will buy Procter & Gamble's perfume, hair care and makeup businesses for $12.5 billion in the biggest cosmetics merger in recent history. Coty would become the No. 1 perfume maker ahead of L'Oreal and No. 3 makeup provider behind its French rival and Estee Lauder. It would run the perfume licenses of Gucci, Hugo Boss and Dolce & Gabbana as well as makeup brands Cover Girl and Max Factor, more than doubling its size with combined sales of more than $10 billion. The deal comes as Coty's sales across categories have either been stagnating or declining for more than two years while P&G has been struggling to expand its beauty business.