Lise Watier sale puts it back in Quebec hands
Lise Watier Cosmétiques, the company started 40 years ago by the glamorous Watier, one of Quebec’s iconic female entrepreneurs, has been purchased by another local cosmetics and skin care heavyweight, Groupe Marcelle.
In the process, Groupe Marcelle becomes the largest Canadian company in the beauty industry. “It brings us one step closer to reaching our ambitious objective of becoming one of the 100 largest global cosmetics manufacturers,” president David Cape said Thursday as the deal was announced.
Watier said she’s pleased the company was acquired by a Canadian group that “will allow Lise Watier Cosmétiques to continue to evolve while preserving its intrinsic brand DNA.”
The four main brands of the two companies, Marcelle, Anabelle, Lise Watier and CW Beggs and Sons, will be kept, Groupe Marcelle said.
Terms of the transaction were not made public, but Quebec’s pension-fund manager, La Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec, helped make it happen by investing $18 million for an unspecified stake in Groupe Marcelle, which now has 360 employees.
Since 2007, the largest shareholder of Montreal-based Lise Watier Cosmétiques has been Ontario investment fund Imperial Capital, with an 85 per cent stake. At the time, the transaction was worth tens of millions of dollars.
Watier, who stepped down as chief executive in 2013 to pursue her philanthropic interests, expressed relief that the company would be back in Quebec hands.
“It’s good news,” she said. “When we were bought by a group from Toronto, I was very disappointed that Quebec was not there.”