Khaitan & Co and Metalegal Advocates advised on L’Oréal’s acquisition of a majority stake in Innovist.
L’Oréal agreed to acquire a majority stake in Onesto Labs Private Limited (Innovist), a leading digital-first Indian personal care house of brands, 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. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals.
Founded in 2019 by Rohit Chawla, Sifat Khurana and Vimal Bhola, Innovist markets personal care products under brands including Bare Anatomy, Chemist at Play and Sunscoop. The acquisition will expand L’Oréal’s presence in India’s cosmetics and haircare sector.
Khaitan & Co advised L’Oréal on its acquisition of a majority stake in Innovist.
The core team comprised Partner Surbhi Kejriwal, Principal Associate Vedika Bhandari, Senior Associate Nikhil Singh and Associate Sanjitha Ravi.
Strategic guidance on Corporate & Commercial matters was provided by Senior Partner Rabindra Jhunjhunwala.
The Direct Tax team comprised Executive Director Vinita Krishnan, Principal Associate Bharat Jain, and Associates Krishnal Shailesh Agrawal and Krunal Himanshu Mehta.
The Indirect Tax team comprised Partner Mayank Jain and Senior Associate Rajshree Lohia.
The Competition / Antitrust team comprised Partner Anshuman Sakle, Principal Associate Siddharth Pravin Bagul, and Associates Sana Vaidya and Priyal Shukla.
The Legal Due Diligence team comprised Partners Surbhi Kejriwal, Supratim Chakraborty, Shailendra Bhandare and Deepak Kumar; Principal Associate Shramana Dwibedi; Senior Associates Vaishali Adhikari and Ashutosh Mishra; and Associates Ishita Khanna, Madhav Govind, Vidhi Damani, Disha Basnet, Sanjitha Ravi and Vedaant Agarwal.
The team advising on structuring from an FDI in E-Commerce perspective comprised Partner Sanjay Khan Nagra and Principal Associate Vishakha Sharma.
The team advising on structuring from a merger laws perspective comprised Partner Mehul Shah and Counsel Rushabh Gala.
The Banking & Finance team comprised Partner Dr Siddharth Srivastava and Counsel Rashneet Kaur.
Metalegal Advocates acted as legal counsel to Innovist and its founders on L’Oréal’s acquisition of a majority stake in the company.
The transaction team comprised Amar Gahlot, Sanyam Aggarwal, Sarvesh Sawant, Arjun Singh Tamang and Ritik Kumar Jha.
