L'Oreal linked to Giorgio Amani

The world's largest cosmetics company completed several acquisitions during 2007 and looks set to continue in the same vein this year with high sales growth inflating its war chest. MF did not explain how it obtained the information regarding the future ownership of Giorgio Armani, stating only that L'Oreal is currently working on the deal. L'Oreal already produces perfumes under the Giorgio Armani brand. Milan-based Giorgio Armani is worth between €3.5bn ($5.2bn) and €5bn, according to the Italian newspaper. While L'Oreal did not complete any acquisitions on the scale of Sanolflore and the Body Shop in 2007, it made a number of significant acquisitions. In the past six months, the company has bought Maly's West, the third largest beauty salon distributor in the US, in a bid to increase its foothold in the US salon hair care market after adding the professional hair care supplier Beauty Alliance to its portfolio last April. Most recently, L'Oreal acquired the hair care specialist Canan in an attempt to tap into the growing cosmetics market in Turkey. L'Oreal's sales for the first nine months of 2007 were $12.6bn, an increase of 7.7 per cent on the year before.