Estée Lauder Walks From Puig, Pivots to Niche Bolt-Ons After Forest Essentials Buyout
Estée Lauder exited merger talks with Puig to preserve firepower for smaller, emerging-market deals. Its full takeover of India's Forest Essentials nearly doubles local share, signaling a masstige- and EM-focused M&A pipeline as the group works through $1.2B cost savings and 10,000 job cuts.
Estée Lauder walked away from Puig merger talks, freeing capital for smaller niche M&A. It just fully acquired India's Forest Essentials, nearly doubling its India market share, and signals more emerging-market, masstige acquisitions ahead.