Shares of Puig Brands soared as much as 15% Tuesday after beauty peer Estée Lauder confirmed the companies are in talks about a potential merger.
Estée Lauder said late Monday that a final decision had not been made on any potential deal, first reported by the Financial Times. It did not disclose any financial terms.
Puig stock was last seen up 14.6%. Shares of Estée Lauder rose less than 1% in premarket trading after tanking 7.7% in the previous session following the first report on the merger.
Combining the bigger U.S.-listed Estée Lauder with the smaller Spanish Puig would bring some of the world’s biggest beauty and fragrance brands under one roof, including Tom Ford Beauty, Carolina Herrera and Clinique.
Puig rose and Estée Lauder shares fell after the companies said they were mulling a potential merger.
Puig had a market capitalization of nearly 8.8 billion euros ($10.2 billion) coming into the trading session, while Estée boasted a $28.7 billion market cap.
Estée Lauder is in the early stages of a turnaround to revitalize growth, and efforts have included layoffs. The company’s woes have been exacerbated by U.S. tariffs, which it flagged in February would impact its full-year profitability by $100 million. Shares have fallen 24% year-do-date.
Meanwhile, Puig has seen sales grow steadily ever since it went public in 2024 with a portfolio spanning fragrance, skin care, and makeup under brands like Charlotte Tilbury, Nina Ricci, and Rabanne.
Citi analysts noted that investors tend not to favor large-scale deals, evidenced by stock reactions in recent high-value deals such as between food and beverages companies Keurig and JDEP and consumer goods players Kimberly-Clark and Kenvue.
While a deal of this size creates “complexity and execution risk,” analysts led by Filippo Falorni estimated that a merger could result in synergies of 5% of target sales and a double-digit growth in earnings per share in the first year.
Deutsche Bank noted that Estée Lauder’s share price was “clearly signaling the market’s apprehensiveness” to a potential deal.
