Clichy, October 17, 2013

Draft agreement between L'Oréal and Shiseido for the acquisition of Decléor and Carita

L’Oréal has extended an offer to the Japanese group Shiseido for the acquisition of Decléor and Carita.

Based on this offer, Shiseido has granted L’Oréal exclusive negotiation rights.

Decléor / Carita achieved a turnover of approximately 100 million euros in 2012 which ranks the group as number two on the worldwide professional skin care market in beauty institutes, spas and hair salons(*). Professional skin care treatments and those given by hairdressers both share the importance of professional services and advice provided by technically-trained experts.

The brands are inspirational and complementary. Founded in 1974, Decléor is the world’s leading brand in aromatherapy. Created in 1945 by Maria & Rosy Carita, known as hairdressers for stars, Carita incarnates the art of prestigious French pampering. Under Shiseidos’ leadership, the brands strengthened their equity, developed their global footprint and grew to the number 2 position in the global Professional Spa and Beauty Institute market.

An Verhulst-Santos, President Professional Products Division L’Oréal, said, “This project is a wonderful opportunity for our Division to become a major player in this strategic professional beauty market, complementary to hair salons. Decléor and Carita are two beautiful, prominent beauty institute brands, particularly well-established in Western Europe. Their growth perspectives, especially internationally, are very promising.”

An agreement could be signed in the coming weeks following consultation of L’Oréal and Shiseido employee representatives. The acquisition will be submitted to the approval of the relevant regulatory authorities.

^{(*) source: Kline 2012}

^{About L'Oréal
L'Oréal, the world's leading beauty company, has catered to all forms of beauty in the world for over 100 years and has built an unrivalled portfolio of 28 international, diverse and complementary brands. With sales amounting to 22.5 billion euros in 2012, L'Oréal employs 72,600 people worldwide. In 2013, the Ethisphere Institute, a leading international think-tank for business ethics, corporate social responsibility and sustainability, recognized L'Oréal as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies. This is the fourth time that L'Oréal has received this distinction. www.loreal.com}

^{"This news release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy L'Oréal shares. If you wish to obtain more comprehensive information about L'Oréal, please refer to the public documents registered in France with the Autorité des Marchés Financiers, also available in English on our Internet site www.loreal-finance.com.
This news release may contain some forward-looking statements. Although the Company considers that these statements are based on reasonable hypotheses at the date of publication of this release, they are by their nature subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated or projected in these statements."}

Contacts at L'Oréal

Individual shareholders and market authorities
Mr Jean Régis CAROF
Tel.: +33 1 47 56 83 02
[email protected]

Financial analysts and institutional investors
Mrs Françoise LAUVIN
Tel.: +33 1 47 56 86 82
[email protected]

Journalists
Mrs Stephanie CARSON-PARKER
Tel.: +33 1 47 56 76 71
[email protected]

Switchboard
Tel.: +33 1 47 56 70 00

^{For more information, please contact your bank, broker or financial institution (I.S.I.N. code: FR0000120321), and consult your usual newspapers, and the Internet site for shareholders and investors, www.loreal-finance.com, or call +33 1 40 14 80 50.}

Read the news release in a pdf file (PDF 315.25 KB)