PARIS – Is L’Oréal poised to make a major deal in India?
Media reports swirled Friday that the French beauty giant is in discussions to acquire a majority stake in Innovist, an Indian personal care company. It comes at a time when L’Oréal is looking to muscle up in the country.
Moneycontrol, an Indian financial and business portal, first published speculation that L’Oréal is nearing the purchase of Innovist, which is valued at 3,240 crore to 4,170 crore, or $350 million to $450 million. The deal could close by the end of April, Moneycontrol said, citing numerous unnamed sources.
A L’Oréal spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.
Innovist counts brands such as Bare Anatomy, Chemist at Play and Sunscoop in its portfolio.
India’s burgeoning beauty and personal care market is attracting strategics and other investors. According to Euromonitor data, it was worth 152,000 crore in 2024, up from 138,000 crore in 2023 and 103,000 crore in 2020.
Nicolas Hieronimus, L’Oréal’s chief executive officer, during a meeting with financial analysts and journalists on Feb. 13, said that a highlight in 2025 was the continued dynamism in emerging markets, which accounted for 17 percent of group sales and as much as 40 percent of sales growth.
“India, though, is not meeting expectations, and we have a new setup there starting this year,” he said. The country registered a high single-digit sales rise.
“We did not gain a lot of market share, if any,” he said. “In the end, I think it’s just because we are setting up a new team, a new organization.”
L’Oréal headquarters.
Courtesy of Abbadie Herve/L’Oréal
Hieronimus said L’Oréal sees major opportunities in the market. “[Dermatological beauty], for example, is fantastic. We just launched CeraVe and La Roche-Posay. It’s starting very well, but it’s still very small,” he explained. “We have great positions in some categories like hair care, where Garnier is number one, or hair color, where we have great products. But overall, we have to be more ambitious.”
There’s a new CEO for L’Oréal India. “We have new capacities. We’ve invested in our factories,” Hieronimus continued. “We have announced the creation of a new tech center in Hyderabad.”
Today, India generates roughly 1 percent of L’Oréal’s turnover. “Which is very small, so it can only go up,” Heironimus said, adding the company has “really put a lot of effort, both financially and humanly – in terms of talents – to change gears in India. I am optimistic, ambitious, but we need to do better. It’s very clear, and that’s what we will start doing hopefully in 2026.”
L’Oréal has been wasting no time. On Feb. 26, L’Oréal’s BOLD venture fund revealed it had invested in two Indian beauty brands – Deconstruct and Arata.
A year prior, in February 2025, Herionimus outlined L’Oréal’s future conquests in three main domains. One is geographies powered by favorable demographics and economies. Emerging markets, where there are 2 billion potential L’Oréal consumers, are among those in the spotlight. The count there should rise by 500 million, with half in India.
Other strategics have been increasingly keen on India as well. The Estée Lauder Cos. on March 5 said it would acquire the remaining 51 percent of Indian ayurvedic beauty brand Forest Essentials that it does not already own. The group had first taken a minority investment in Forest Essentials in 2008 and increased its stake to 49 percent in 2020.
Unilever Ventures, Unilever’s global corporate venture capital arm, in January made two new beauty investments in India. Secret Alchemist, among India’s first clean fragrance indie brands, raised $3 million in a seed funding round that was led by Unilever Ventures. In a separate deal, Unilever Ventures invested in the luxury Indian skin care brand SkinInspired alongside Lotus Herbals Pvt. Ltd., through its beauty and personal care investment arm, Lotus Innovation Fund, and Spring Market Capital, which led the round, among other investors. The Series A round was valued at 24 crore. IS THIS RIGHT? IT SEEMS VERY LOW FOR A SERIES A? / YES IT WAS RIGHT. I DOUBLE-CHECKED THE RELEASE AND PUT IT IN LOCAL CURRENCY
In March, Unilever Ventures also contributed to a $7.5 million Series B funding round for RAS Luxury Skincare, based in India.
“Looking ahead, our priorities are clear: more beauty and well-being and personal care; disproportionate investment in the U.S. and India, and a sharper focus on premium segments and digital commerce,” said Fernando Fernandez, Unilever’s CEO, in the group’s first-half 2025 statement, released July 31, 2025.
