L’Occitane’s attempts to revitalise growth have led to high operational costs, leading to further erosion of its share price and investor confidence.

French cosmetic giant L’Occitane International has announced it is to delist its shares from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), and take them back into private hands. The company has blamed the rising competition in the luxury goods market, as well as the complications of operating as a listed company. 

In April of this year, L’Occitane’s majority stakeholder Reinold Geiger offered €1.7bn to take over the remaining 28% of the company, with extensive financial backing from Goldman Sachs and Blackstone. At the time, the company was valued at some €6bn. 

L’Occitane International has now revealed that 91.97% of disinterested shareholders had already agreed to sell their shares to support the privatisation attempt, which is well above the minimum amount required for the offer to succeed. The video player is currently playing an ad.

Disinterested shareholders refer to those shareholders who currently do not own enough shares for their votes to have a major effect on company strategy and decisions. 

L’Occitane Holding, a subsidiary fully-owned by Geiger, has revealed that it will now go ahead with the compulsory takeover of the remaining shares, after which the privatisation offer will be complete. 

On Wednesday afternoon, the company’s shares were trading at €3.98. 

L’Occitane International was established in 1976, in the Provence region in the south of France. Currently, it operates more than 3,000 stores in 90 countries, with 1,300 of these stores being owned by the company.