Blackstone Sells ZO Skin Health to Galderma for $1.5 Billion
(Bloomberg) — Galderma Group AG agreed to buy ZO Skin Health Inc. for an enterprise value of $1.5 billion in an all-cash deal that expands the Swiss dermatology company’s physician-dispensed skincare portfolio in the US.
California-based ZO is being sold to Galderma by shareholders including Blackstone Inc. and the founding Obagi family, according to a statement Wednesday. Blackstone bought a majority stake in ZO in 2020 through its tactical opportunities fund for an undisclosed sum.
Galderma, in which France’s L’Oreal SA holds 20%, is pushing into the fast-growing medical-grade skincare segment and established a US and Latin American headquarters in Miami in August.
The owner of the Cetaphil and Alastin skincare brands has said it’s planning to invest more than $650 million in American manufacturing facilities through 2030.
“The US will probably, at some point in the not too distant future, be the majority of our sales,” Chief Executive Officer Flemming Ornskov said Wednesday in a telephone interview.
“We now get even closer ties to med spas and aesthetics offices and we get better opportunity to roll this portfolio out with scale internationally,” Ornskov said. Galderma already has a large laboratory in California so the deal will create “a lot of synergies” in terms of product portfolio and location, he added.
Galderma shares dipped about 1.1% in early trading in Zurich. They were up by about 20% over the past 12 months through Tuesday’s close.
Vontobel analyst Stefan Schneider said the ZO deal makes both strategic and financial sense as the companies’ “complementary portfolios are a perfect fit.”
It “meaningfully expands Galderma’s exposure to the physician-dispensed, medical-grade skincare channel, while giving ZO access to Galderma’s broader commercial, education and geographic infrastructure,” according to Benjamin Jackson at Jefferies.
Founded by Syrian-American dermatologist Zein Obagi in 2007, ZO manufactures more than 40 products in the US, including cleansers, serums, exfoliators and toners. They’re sold through a network of around 16,500 physician, medical spa and online accounts across more than 40 countries.
Galderma was created in 1981 as a joint venture between Nestle and L’Oreal. After a few years of being entirely owned by Nestle, it was acquired by a group of investors in 2019 before an initial public offering in 2024.
The ZO acquisition will be funded through a combination of existing cash reserves and bank financing, and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026 or early 2027, subject to regulatory approvals.
Lazard and JP Morgan are acting as financial advisers to Galderma, while Raymond James and Citi are advising ZO and Blackstone.
(Updates with analyst comment, details starting in second paragraph.)
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