Firm Matters
BackKhaitan & Co advised L'Oréal on its acquisition of majority stake in Onesto Labs Pvt Ltd (Innovist), a leading digital-first Indian personal care house of brands.
The transaction involves the upfront acquisition of a majority stake in Innovist through an all-cash secondary purchase of shares from its promoter and existing shareholders. As part of the transaction, L'Oréal has also secured the right to acquire the remaining minority stake held by Innovist’s founding team. Through this strategic acquisition, L'Oreal has widened its presence in the cosmetics and haircare sector in the world’s fastest-growing beauty market. Founded in 2019 by Rohit Chawla, Sifat Khurana and Vimal Bhola, Innovist markets its products in the personal care category under the primary brand name "Bare Anatomy", "Chemist at Play" and "Sunscoop" in and outside India.
Deal Team
The core team consisted of Surbhi Kejriwal (Partner), Vedika Bhandari (Principal Associate), Nikhil Singh (Senior Associate) and Sanjitha Ravi (Associate)
Strategic Guidance
Corporate & Commercial: Rabindra Jhunjhunwala (Senior Partner)
The deal was assisted by
Direct Tax: Vinita Krishnan (Executive Director), Bharat Jain (Principal Associate), Krishnal Shailesh Agrawal (Associate) and Krunal Himanshu Mehta (Associate)
Indirect Tax: Mayank Jain (Partner) and Rajshree Lohia (Senior Associate)
Competition / Antitrust: Anshuman Sakle (Partner), Siddharth Pravin Bagul (Principal Associate), Sana Vaidya (Associate) and Priyal Shukla (Associate)
Legal due diligence: Surbhi Kejriwal (Partner), Supratim Chakraborty (Partner), Shailendra Bhandare (Partner), Deepak Kumar (Partner), Shramana Dwibedi (Principal Associate), Vaishali Adhikari (Senior Associate), Ashutosh Mishra (Senior Associate), Ishita Khanna (Associate), Madhav Govind (Associate), Vidhi Damani (Associate), Disha Basnet (Associate), Sanjitha Ravi (Associate) and Vedaant Agarwal (Associate);
Structuring from FDI in E-Commerce perspective: Sanjay Khan Nagra (Partner) and Vishakha Sharma (Principal Associate);
Structuring from merger laws perspective: Mehul Shah (Partner) and Rushabh Gala (Counsel); and
Banking & Finance: Dr Siddharth Srivastava (Partner) and Rashneet Kaur (Counsel).
