Kering and L’Oréal are entering a long-term strategic partnership in luxury beauty and wellness. This binding agreement encompasses the acquisition of the House of Creed by L’Oréal, the beauty and fragrance licenses of iconic Houses of Kering and an exclusive venture to explore business opportunities in the field of wellness and longevity.  

Building on the success of Yves Saint Laurent Beauté, this alliance further consolidates the long history of collaboration of two global leaders with complementary strengths — iconic luxury brands of Kering and the world-class expertise of L’Oréal in beauty — to accelerate growth and unlock considerable value across high-potential categories.

Under the terms of this agreement, Kering has the right to sell Kering Beauté including the House of Creed to L’Oréal. A true heritage name in haute parfumerie, Creed stands among the leading high-end luxury fragrance Houses, celebrated for its craftsmanship and mastery of rare natural ingredients. As part of L’Oréal Luxe, Creed will be best positioned to accelerate even further its global development across both men’s and women’s markets.

Kering and L’Oréal have entered a €4 billion strategic partnership spanning luxury beauty, fragrance, and wellness.
The deal includes L’Oréal’s acquisition of Creed and 50-year exclusive licences for Gucci, Bottega Veneta, and Balenciaga fragrances.
The alliance aims to accelerate global growth and explore new frontiers in wellness and longevity.

The partnership includes the rights to enter into a 50-year exclusive license for the creation, development, and distribution of fragrance and beauty products for Gucci, commencing after expiration of the current license with Coty, and respecting the Kering group’s obligations as per the existing license agreement. 

Kering will also grant L’Oréal 50-year exclusive licenses for the creation, development, and distribution of fragrance and beauty products for Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga, starting upon closing of the announced transaction.

A strategic committee will be established to ensure coordination between Kering brands and L’Oréal and monitor the progress of our partnership.

The agreement, including the sale of Creed and the establishment of these 50-year licenses on these iconic Houses of Kering, is valued at €4 billion, payable in cash at closing, expected in the first half of 2026. L’Oréal will also pay royalties to Kering for the use of its licensed brands.

Beyond beauty, Kering and L’Oréal are joining forces to explore business opportunities at the intersection of luxury, wellness, and longevity. This exclusive partnership, in the form of a planned 50/50 joint venture, will craft cutting-edge experiences and services combining L’Oréal’s innovation capabilities with Kering’s deep understanding of luxury clients.

“This strategic alliance marks a decisive step for Kering,” declared Luca de Meo, CEO of Kering. “Joining forces with the global leader in beauty, we will accelerate the development of fragrance and cosmetics for our major Houses, allowing them to achieve scale in this category and unlock their immense long-term potential, as did Yves Saint Laurent Beauté under L’Oréal’s stewardship. Together, we will also venture into new frontiers of wellness, combining the unrivalled expertise of L’Oréal with our unique luxury reach. This partnership allows us to focus on what defines us best: the creative power and desirability of our Houses.”

“I am delighted to forge this long-term strategic alliance with one of the world’s most prestigious, creative and visionary luxury groups. This partnership will further solidify our position as the world’s #1 luxury beauty company and allow us to explore new avenues in wellness together.” said Nicolas Hieronimus, CEO L’Oréal Groupe. “The addition of these extraordinary brands perfectly complements our existing portfolio and significantly expands our reach into new, dynamic segments of luxury beauty. Through Creed, we will establish ourselves as one of the leading players in the fast-growing niche fragrance market. Gucci, Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga are all exceptional couture brands with enormous potential for growth.”

The agreement is subject to Kering’s obligations under French employment law, with the right for Kering to sell Kering Beauté to L’Oréal and an exclusivity granted to L’Oréal.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RKS)

China recently announced allocating 500 billion yuan (~$70.56 billion) through a new policy-based financial instrument.

The China Development Bank, the Export-Import Bank of China and the Agricultural Development Bank of China allocated 250 billion yuan, 100 billion yuan and 150 billion yuan respectively to support construction of projects in key areas and weak links.

China has allocated $70.56 billion through a new policy-based financial instrument.
The China Development Bank, the Export-Import Bank of China and the Agricultural Development Bank of China were the three allocators.
The aim is to back construction of projects and weak links.
A fund was also set up for China’s centrally-administered state-owned enterprises to develop strategic emerging industries.

The move is expected to stimulate over 7 trillion yuan in investment, according to statistics from the policy banks.

The financial instrument prioritises projects in technological innovation, consumption expansion and foreign trade stabilisation, while also supporting initiatives in major economic provinces and private investment projects, according to a state-controlled news agency.

The country also established a fund for its centrally-administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to develop strategic emerging industries, raising 51 billion yuan (~$7.2 billion) in its first phase.

The fund was initiated by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council and is managed by China Reform Holdings Corporation Ltd.

Over 10 centrally-administered SOEs have contributed to the fund, including China Mobile, Sinopec and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation.

The fund will invest in fields like new-generation information technology, artificial intelligence, new energy, new materials, high-end equipment, biomedicine and quantum technology.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

Amazon.com Inc.’s latest global layoffs should come as a singular warning to India. For policymakers dealing with the world’s largest youth population, AI suddenly poses a very real risk to jobs, wages, and a white-collar future.

The e-commerce and cloud services giant’s elimination of 14,000 corporate positions worldwide may not have a large direct impact on its sizeable Indian workforce. The more worrying thing is the kind of occupations at risk: Generative artificial intelligence is starting to affect more than just entry-level computer programming.

Outsourcing hubs like Bengaluru and Hyderabad are already feeling the pinch from AI. But Amazon’s cuts may affect finance, marketing, human resources and tech employees, according to local media reports. That puts many more sectors on notice and validates a growing body of academic work.

After parsing nearly 200 years of data on labor markets and technological change, finance scholars at Northwestern University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have concluded that advances in natural-language processing may favor occupations that are lower-educated, lower-paid, and more male-dominated, such as construction and trucking. 

It would be a dramatic departure from how previous innovation affected demand for workers. As Huben Liu and his coauthors explain, until the 1980s IT revolution, most advances in automation supplanted manual effort while supporting cognitive tasks. Take, for instance, Irving Colburn’s early-20th-century invention of a machine to substitute hand-blown glass in window panes. The blowers’ wages fell 40%. Within one generation, mechanization drove an entire class of artisans out of business.

By contrast, the arrival of electronic calculators in the 1970s helped accountants and auditors to become more productive. It didn’t replace them. The tilt toward services such as finance and health care favored women, facilitating their entry into the workforce as 20th-century innovations also eased the burden of domestic chores.

Over time, these improvements went global, but the hard-won gains may now reverse. With the capital costs of implementing AI expected to become cheaper each year, cognitive tasks that don’t require at least five years of specific vocational preparation will be at risk from automation, the researchers say. That includes many entry-level jobs, such as analyzing financial statements at Wall Street firms.

Mechanized production of sheet glass did little to hurt women. At the cusp of automation in 1900, they held few of the 53,000 jobs in the US glass industry. Employers preferred men. (In 1900, the industry employed twice as many children under 16 as women.) But to lose out now to Lilli, McKinsey & Co.’s proprietary AI tool that’s drafting client proposals and preparing slide decks? That would certainly rankle, especially since it’s named after the first woman professional hired by the consulting firm in 1945. 

All this may come as a particularly harsh blow to the 375 million Indians who are between 10 and 24 years old. At 18.5%, youth unemployment in cities is alarmingly high. Young women’s participation in the labor force is abysmally low at under 22%. Large-scale adoption of AI tools by companies will further muddy the picture. In a separate paper, London School of Economics professor Luis Garicano and his coauthor examine a realistic scenario: If AI does away with entry-level grunt work, which employer will bother to train fresh graduates? How will they rise up the career ladder to higher-wage positions?

Artificial intelligence may still surprise us by creating new tasks that don’t yet exist. It’s also possible that young people will invest in their own AI training. But if Amazon is any indication, the technological exposure of higher-educated, better-paid, and more women-oriented occupations is indeed high.

This won’t be the first shock to India’s labor market in modern times. Its cotton spinners and weavers, among the world’s best in the early 18th century, took a large hit from the Industrial Revolution. As the economy struggles to move from lower-middle to higher-middle income, AI is threatening its biggest advantage: the youth bulge it enjoys against other countries that are rapidly aging. 

The right approach to AI would contain both carrots and sticks. The preponderance of Chinese large language models among the world’s top 20, as highlighted by my colleague Catherine Thorbecke, makes it obvious that India isn’t doing enough fundamental research. This must change. The government also needs to read the riot act to outsourcing firms. They have to halt share buybacks and invest in meaningful AI projects, not just data centers.

Finally, the broader corporate sector should be given generous tax breaks for research and development. Instead of coming up with generic copies of drugs going off patent in the West, pharmaceutical companies must be encouraged to use AI to discover new molecules.

The next quarter-century offers the most-populous nation a chance to get rich before it grows old. Ending up on the wrong side of technological change for the second time in 300 years won’t be a good outcome — either for India, or the world. Amazon’s job cuts are the proverbial canary in the coal mine. The time to act is now, before the outlook for white-collar work turns more toxic.