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Exclusive | Blackstone, Carlyle to compete with Chinese bidders for Asian distributor of Fancl’s beauty products
- Blackstone, Carlyle, Sequoia Capital China and Citic Capital submitted bids ahead of Friday’s deadline, according to people familiar with the plan
- Range of bids narrows to roughly US$700 million to US$900 million, with Tencent and JD.com waiting to team up with auction winner
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US private equity giants Blackstone Group and Carlyle Group are competing with Citic Capital and Sequoia Capital China for the sole legal distributor of the preservative-free skincare and cosmetics Fancl in Asia excluding Japan, people familiar with the matter said.
The range of offers submitted by the four bidders has narrowed to roughly US$700 million to US$900 million, from about US$600 million to US$900 million, before the auction round ended on Friday.
Chinese internet giants Tencent Holdings and JD.com as well as Japanese financial services group Orix are waiting in the wings to team up with the winner of the auction and craft a strategy for boosting sales in mainland China, the people said.
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A deal is likely to bring to an end a long-running dispute between Tokyo-listed Fancl Corp and its Hong Kong-based distributor CMC Holdings, over the rising tide of cheap imports from Japan.
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Bain Capital was also courting the Fancl distributor but did not make a final bid by Friday, even though it is still interested in the company, the people added.
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The next step will be for Hong Kong-based entrepreneur Christopher Chan and his wife Michelle, the founders of CMC Holdings, to pick one or two suitors to make binding bids and conduct deeper due diligence on the company. The final step would see one of these suitors signing a purchase agreement, probably before the end of February, the people said.
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