Looking For a Deal
Il Makiage is working with Centerview Partners to explore deal options, the company has confirmed to WWD.
Several industry sources said that Centerview had been tapped to explore options for the company, including a potential sale or initial public offering.
They said that Il Makiage has seen success selling complexion products online, even during the coronavirus pandemic, and is expected to reach around $150 million in net sales for 2020.
A spokesman for Il Makiage confirmed that figure, and chief executive officer Oran Holtzman confirmed the hire of Centerview in a statement.
“The company is completing its second year of hyper growth since its U.S. launch in mid-2018 as a prestige, complexion-driven beauty brand. As expected, considering our unparalleled growth online, we are receiving lots of inbound interest. Therefore we recently hired Centerview Partners to advise us on pursuing an IPO or a strategic sale. Given the brand’s broad consumer appeal, strong growth, profitability, global reach and visibility into continued hyper growth, we believe Il Makiage is a rare asset and bona fide industry disruptor,” Holtzman said in the statement.
The spokesman said Il
Makiage has “strong profitability,” but declined to share exact margins. One industry source said margins were around 15 percent.
Holtzman and his team relaunched Il Makiage in 2018 after receiving a $29 million investment from L Catterton, which bought a 35.8 percent stake in the business in 2017. In 2018, the brand spent $8 million on advertising around its relaunch with an antiminimalism campaign that included slogans “minimalism is dead” and “Sorry, I don’t speak low maintenance.”
Sources noted that Il Makiage has seen strong sales of complexion products online — the channel where most of the brand’s sales come from — even during the COVID-19 pandemic when makeup sales have struggled. Il Makiage was an early digital adopter, and bought a startup called NeoWize in 2019 as part of the overall plan to make online beauty shopping more viable.
Beyond the e-commerce platform, Il Makiage has developed an online foundation shade matching tool called
Power Match, and built an app for microinfluencers, Kenzza, that allows influencers to earn commission around product sales. — ALLISON COLLINS