Cult Beauty, Feelunique could be on the ASOS shopping list - report

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
May 18, 2021

Fashion e-tail giant ASOS is reportedly considering diving even deeper into beauty via possible bids for major beauty platform Cult Beauty or Feelunique, according to a report.

Sky News said on Tuesday that the retailer is looking at possible bids for the businesses that have been put on the auction block by their owners.

But an ASOS spokeswoman wouldn’t comment on the story.

While no bid for either is guaranteed, the news organisation also said that ASOS would be interested in buying only one of the two operations.

Banking sources said that Cult Beauty and Feelunique could command valuations “in the low hundreds of millions of pounds” each after they capitalised on strong demand over the past year.

ASOS has been growing fast in recent periods, both organically and by acquisition. Its biggest buy saw it taking on some of failed Arcadia’s brands, including star label Topshop.

But it has also been moving more heavily into beauty in recent years and its half-year results last month revealed face and body product sales rose 114% in the period.

Yet ASOS wouldn’t have the field to itself if it did try to buy either platform with the Sky report also saying that THG and Zalando are believed to be interested in possibly purchasing them too.