Retail industry
Estée Lauder ends merger talks with Gaultier owner Puig
Mark Sweney
Fri 22 May 2026 10.42 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/may/22/estee-lauder-ends-merger-talks-gaultier-owner-puig
The US cosmetics company Estée Lauder has ended merger talks with its Spanish rival Puig over plans to create a fashion and beauty group worth almost $40bn (£30bn/€34.5bn) after the two sides failed to agree on the balance of power in the combined company.
Estée Lauder, one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of skincare, makeup and fragrances, owns brands including Clinique, Bobbi Brown and Tom Ford Beauty .
Puig, which floated on the Madrid stock market two years ago, owns labels including Jean Paul Gaultier, Charlotte Tilbury, Carolina Herrera and Dries van Noten.
Estée Lauder said on Thursday “the parties have terminated discussions regarding a potential business combination”.
The talks, first reported in March , stalled over disagreements about how the merged entity would be structured. Sticking points are understood to have included which of the founding familieswould control the fashion and beauty giant, as well as the balance of power and allocation of board seats.
Another bone of contention, first reported by Bloomberg, was the level of compensation demanded by Tilbury. One of the UK’s richest beauty entrepreneurs , she founded her brand in 2013 and topped last year’s inaugural Sunday Times beauty rich list with an estimated fortune estimated of £350m .
Stéphane de La Faverie, the chief executive at Estée Lauder, said: “We are grateful for the conversations we have had with Puig. Today, we are reiterating our confidence in the power of our incredible brands, our talented teams and our strength as a standalone company.”
The talks had not been popular with Estée Lauder investors, with its market value falling by about a fifth after the discussions became public. On Thursday, the company’s shares climbed by 11.5% in post-market trading as investors welcomed the news that the discussions had been terminated.
The Lauder family controls the company, which was founded in 1946, through a dual-class voting structure. Although it owns about 38% of shares, it indirectly or directly has more than 80% of voting power.
However, shares in Puig, which had fallen almost 30% since its €13.9bn flotation in 2024, rose 15% when the potential merger was announced. The company’s shares plunged by the same amount after the termination of the talks.
Most of the voting rights remain controlled by the Puig family, which founded the business 110 years ago.
José Manuel Albesa, the chief executive of Puig, said on Thursday that the company “appreciate[d] the meaningful conversations”.
He added: “This decision does not alter our strategic roadmap. We will continue to take a highly selective and value-focused approach to mergers and acquisitions in order to further complement our portfolio.”
Puig has struck 11 deals to buy fragrance and fashion brands between 2011 and 2024.
In February, the Barcelona-based company announced the appointment of Albesa as its first chief executive from outside the Puig family. He succeeded Marc Puig, who had led the business since 2004 and remains the executive chair.