Trilogy founder backs Citic deal
Chinese buyer advised to protect skincare brand, keep good people
The co-founder of skincare brand Trilogy says it should continue to succeed under its new owner, provided the huge Chinese conglomerate protects the product and keeps good people behind it.
“If they don’t do that — good luck,” warns Sarah Gibbs.
Gibbs said she supported the sale of the brand to China’s Citic Capital Partners, whose $211 million takeover of NZX-listed Trilogy International got the green light from investors yesterday.
Together with sister Catherine de Groot, Gibbs started the business in the early 2000s out of an Upper Hutt industrial unit with a leaky roof.
“We used to talk about ‘ Trilogy from Trentham’ which is not ‘L’Oreal from Paris’,” Gibbs said.
“If you think about Trilogy from Trentham going from strength to strength to where it is today, we’re extremely proud of the brand and lots of the people behind it,” she said.
Gibbs and de Groot in 2010 sold Trilogy for $20m to listed candlemaker Ecoya, a company under the control of The Business Bakery — the investment vehicle of 42 Below founders Geoff Ross, Steve Sinclair and Grant Baker.
The combined business was later renamed Trilogy International and is due to delist from the NZX next month if the Overseas Investment Office approves the Citic deal and the High Court ratifies the transaction.
The Business Bakery, which owns about 31 per cent of Trilogy International, had already backed Citic’s offer of $2.90 per share before yesterday’s shareholder vote.
That price represented a 28 per cent premium to what Trilogy shares were trading at before the offer and within independent adviser Grant Samuel’s valuation range of $2.59 and $2.94 per share.
The Business Bakery — which also owns about 21 per cent of beer com- pany Moa Group — is in line to net up to $65m from the deal but Baker said there weren’t any specific investments earmarked for the proceeds.
“It’s very unlikely we’d do any start-up type thing again, there’s as much chance of us dividing the proceeds up among the partners in The [Business] Bakery as anything else,” he said.
Baker said he believed Trilogy International’s brands would continue to do well under Citic, the private-equity arm of a state-owned Chinese giant.
“They just have a bigger footprint than us, they’ve got people they can deal with in China and Asia and open doors which are difficult for us to open. They will have obviously bought it to do that — to grow it.”
Gibbs, who left Trilogy International’s board in 2015 but retained about 3 per cent of the company leading into the takeover, is now an adviser and investor in several foodrelated firms.
She said the Trilogy skincare brand had done well under recent new management.
“Provided the new owners protect the brand and protect the formulations, which is what really made that business successful ... then I wish them every success.”
They just have a bigger footprint than us, they’ve got people they can deal with in China and Asia and open doors which are difficult for us to open. They will have obviously bought it to do that — to grow it. Grant Baker