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French beauty group acquires 10% stake in newly listed dermatology company

L’Oréal has acquired a 10 per cent stake in newly listed dermatology company Galderma, in a move that takes the beauty giant back into the injectables market after 10 years in traditional cosmetics.

The French beauty giant acquired the stake for an undisclosed sum from a consortium led by Swedish private equity group EQT. The consortium, which has owned Galderma for five years, recently took the company public and remains a shareholder.

Nicolas Hieronimus, chief executive of L’Oréal, said the deal “allows us to explore partnering in the fast-growing aesthetics market, a key adjacency to our own pure beauty play”.

Galderma, which sells everything from acne treatments to aesthetic injectables and fillers designed to eliminate wrinkles and alter facial features, said it had formed a scientific partnership with the French beauty giant to develop anti-skin ageing technologies. Analysts estimate the stake to be worth €1.7bn.

Based in Zug, Switzerland, Galderma was established in 1981 as a joint venture between Nestlé and L’Oréal. In 2014, Nestlé bought out L’Oréal’s 50 per cent stake. The company was then acquired by the consortium led by EQT for $10bn in 2019.

“L’Oréal is moving left-field [with] beauty tech/devices and now injectables, in a notable shift away from traditional cosmetics, perhaps a sign of a view on the future of the beauty wallet,” wrote Jefferies analyst Molly Wylenzek, adding that L’Oréal probably took the stake with a view to “higher ownership and control over time”. L’Oréal shares were down 1 per cent in early trading on Monday, amid broader turbulence in global stock markets.

The deal comes after Galderma’s investors, which also include the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Singapore’s GIC, took the company public in Switzerland in March.

The initial public offering for Galderma raised about SFr2.3bn at a price of SFr53 a share. Most of the proceeds from the IPO were intended to repay and refinance Galderma’s debts.

Shares in the company have since risen to about SFr67. Galderma’s market capitalisation is roughly SFr16bn.

Carlyle to sell power producer Cogentrix Energy in $3bn deal

Private equity group Quantum Capital will buy owner of natural gas power plants

Carlyle is selling one of the largest portfolios of natural gas power plants in the US for $3bn, amid a surge of investor interest in the energy sector linked to the soaring demand for electricity from digital networks.

The US private equity firm will sell Cogentrix Energy to Quantum Capital Group, a Houston-based private equity group focused on energy investments. An announcement is expected on Monday.

The Financial Times reported in June that Cogentrix had hired boutique investment bank Lazard and law firm Latham & Watkins to explore a sale.

Cogentrix, which is headquartered in North Carolina, owns 11 natural gas power plants in some of the most energy-hungry markets across the US, including Texas, Pennsylvania and the New England region.

Carlyle initially bought the power producer from Goldman Sachs in 2012 for an undisclosed sum. It has roughly doubled Cogentrix’s assets since then by purchasing new power plants and expanding its business.

Wil VanLoh, Quantum’s founder and chief executive, said it was unusual to get the chance to buy a large portfolio of gas power plants in markets experiencing such growth in power demand.

“Electricity demand is rapidly increasing thanks to explosive growth in data centres and AI, the reshoring of manufacturing, and the electrification of everything. This is an opportunistic purchase and we plan to support the growth of the business,” he told the FT.

The transaction marks the latest in a flurry of dealmaking in the utility sector, where electricity demand is rising after two decades of stagnation.

Investors have been seeking opportunities to acquire and invest in power plants, partly driven by expectations that demand for power will soar due to the expansion of data centres and digital infrastructure needed for artificial intelligence, potentially straining the energy supply.

Global Infrastructure Partners, Canadian pension fund CPP Investments and Brookfield have all backed multibillion-dollar transactions in recent months as investors bet a once-staid sector will now offer better returns.

Carlyle’s divestment of Cogentrix to Quantum is unlikely to dim the private equity group’s interest in the energy sector. In 2021 Carlyle founded Copia Power, a renewable energy company building solar farms and battery storage assets across the US.

Pooja Goyal, chief investment officer of Carlyle’s infrastructure group, said the AI boom could not happen without stable and reliable power to energise the data centres built by technology groups.

“The biggest bottleneck right now is power generation capacity, as well as transmission and distribution capacity,” Goyal said. “So we will continue to be very active in those areas through our existing portfolio companies, as well as new investments that we make.”

Australian group’s quick second deal for US assets comes as Nassef Sawiris continues with OCI break-up plan

Australia’s Woodside Energy has struck its second deal for US assets in a matter of weeks, agreeing to pay $2.35bn to buy a low-carbon ammonia project in Texas from OCI Global.

The acquisition by Perth-based Woodside, Australia’s largest oil and gas developer, comes on the heels of its $1.2bn takeover of the struggling US liquefied natural gas developer Tellurian in late July.

The company has been on the hunt for acquisitions to bolster its growth prospects and has said it is seeking to become a “global LNG powerhouse”. Woodside traces its roots to the 1950s and doubled in size in 2022 when it acquired BHP’s oil and gas division.

The deal means Woodside will expand its investment in ammonia, a compound used in fertilisers that has gained prominence in recent years as a way of transporting and storing hydrogen. This has been pitched as a way to decarbonise sectors such as trucking and shipping.

So-called blue ammonia is made in the same way as traditional ammonia by using gas, but with the carbon byproduct captured and stored. Carbon capture technology is undeveloped at scale and has been criticised for extending the reliance on fossil fuels.

A number of big oil and gas groups — including ExxonMobil, Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company — have invested in blue ammonia facilities, betting it will play a role in the energy transition.

The OCI facility in Beaumont, Texas, is one of the biggest blue ammonia projects under construction, expected to produce 1.1mn tonnes a year.

For Amsterdam-listed OCI, the chemicals and fertiliser empire led by Egypt’s richest man Nassef Sawiris, the sale comes as part of a broad and continuing break-up plan.

OCI’s board approved a strategic review of all business lines as well as its Netherlands listing venue last year after Jeff Ubben, a US activist investor, bought a 5 per cent stake. He pressed the group to explore options, including asset sales to improve shareholder returns.

Ubben had cited the ammonia project in Texas as one of OCI’s assets that could potentially attract interest from energy groups. It is set to begin production next year.

Woodside is acquiring all of the equity in the project, in a deal expected to close in the second half of this year.

Sawiris, whose personal assets include English football club Aston Villa, has already struck deals to sell other parts of OCI. Last December, the group agreed to offload two fertiliser holdings for about $3.6bn apiece, to Adnoc and Koch Industries of the US.

The Egyptian businessman told the Financial Times in a rare interview earlier this year that OCI could be turned into a cash-shell company that pursues acquisitions in new industries.

In its end-of-year earnings for 2023, OCI said it would distribute at least $3bn to shareholders this year.

Shares in OCI have fallen 17 per cent this year, giving it a market value of €4.7bn. Woodside shares have dropped 20 per cent this year and the company has a market value of $34bn.

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