PZ Cussons buys fake tan firm St Tropez for £62.5m
St Tropez, the fake suntan brand favoured by Victoria Beckham, has been snapped up by PZ Cussons.
St Tropez is the country's top self-tanning range sold throughout the High Street. It became famous when "Posh Spice" was photographed carrying it in a see-through bag. It makes self tan, gradual tan and wash-off tan mousses, sprays and lotions.
Cussons, owner of The Sanctuary beauty range and Imperial Leather soap, is paying private-equity group LDC (formerly Lloyds Development Capital)
£62.5 million for the business, which LDC bought for £70 million in 2006.
Brandon Leigh, finance director, said Cussons had won an auction of the business "from a handful of other bidders".
He said St Tropez would be a great fit in Cussons' "masstige" range, which sits between cheap mass-market products and top-end prestige ones. It would sit alongside The Sanctuary spa range and Charles Worthington hair care products. St Tropez had sales of £20.7 million in the year to end July and made earnings of £7.4 million.
It is being sold free of debt and Leigh said Cussons would finance the deal from its resources and expects it to enhance earnings in the current financial year. He said Cussons would still have a strong enough balance sheet to make further deals if they came up.
Cussons shares rose 5p to 369.8p as analysts raised their forecasts by 3% this year and 7% next.
