GEREJE Corporate Finance has been supporting in 2018 the prestigious brand “PARFUMS DE MARLY” in its search for strategic distributors in Southeast Asia. The company has started a collaboration with the specialized distributor TANG HONG FAR EAST. Thanks to this partnership, the brand’s perfumes will be distributed in the most prestigious shopping malls in Cambodia and Vietnam.

Launched in 2010, PARFUMS DE MARLY pays tribute to French History, and more specifically to Louis XV. The company has a collection of 22 perfumes with a deliberate segmentation between men and women, unlike most niche perfume brands.

With the strengthening of its distribution capabilities and strategic investments to promote its image and develop its points of sales, the company – which is in the top 10 niche perfume brands – now has all the resources to reinforce its position among the most attractive brands of high-end perfumes, in France and abroad.

Fabrice LOMBARDO, Founder & CEO of GEREJE: “As new brands of niche perfumes keep appearing, the perfume market has been consolidating in the past few years with a +13% growth of M&A transactions in this sector in 2017.

Valuations too are on the rise, with an average EV/EBITDA multiple of 13.8x in 2017 (against 12.9x in 2016), and still a strong appetite of two kinds of players:

  • Large companies in the cosmetics and perfume industries, knowing that the 3 top players L’Oréal, Estée Lauder and Coty now account for more than 45% of market shares
  • Institutional investors (PE firms, Family Offices), 60% of whom confirm the attractivity of this sector, according to Deloitte.

Premium perfume market in Asia has doubled in 10 years. It is only the beginning of a trend that marks a double-digit growth since 2017 and that remains 20 times smaller than the US market / 60 times smaller than the UK market. The challenge for these new brands is to find serious partners able to invest in them with a long-term ROI objective, whereas most investors – especially in Asia – prefer safety and immediate profits that only established brands can offer. Our expertise of the luxury & lifestyle market, as well as our 20-year long experience in Asia have enabled us to find the right partner”.