Luxury leans towards concentration: M&As up 20% in 2017

Luxury earns strength in a competitive environment. The sector registered 140 mergers and acquisitions during last year, a 20% more than those experienced last year. That is given off in the last report The Luxury and Cosmetics Financial Factbook carried out by consultant EY.

The document points out that the need for innovation within the industry has contributed to the fact that companies jumped onto more M&As in order to gain size and improve their competitivity. The luxury and cosmetics sectors have drawn the interest of investment funds that represent almost half of the produced M&As, a 49% of them.  Furthermore, during last year, the sector has led the main role in transactions with huge volumes that evolved into the creation of new conglomerates of brands.

The revenue of luxury and cosmetics industry reached the 435 billion euros in 2017, which means that it increased in a 3.8% in base to last year. The main reasons why sales have grown in the sector are the increase of consumption in markets like China and the digitalisation of the industry.

The revenue of luxury and cosmetics industry reached the 435 billion euros in 2017

The report also points out that luxury will obtain an income worth 517 billion euros by 2021. In that sense, the promotion of sales will come hand in hand with the growth of companies from the premium segment. In fact, that division ended 2017 with a revenue of 108 billion euros, a 6.9% more than last year, and it is predicted to grow at an average rate of 7.5% annually until 2021.

At the same time, for the cosmetics sector, the consultancy forecasts an annual growth of 4.5% after reaching an income of 51 billion euros in 2017. Meanwhile, the annual growth in the luxury segment, whose revenue ascended to the figure of 276 billion euros, will stand at a rate of 3% up until 2021.