L'Occitane majority owner rinses buyout plan

The news: Austrian billionaire and L'Occitane controlling shareholder Reinold Geiger has scrapped plans to take the skincare company private.

The numbers: L'Occitane confirmed last month that Geiger's investment holding company L'Occitane Groupe was considering buying out the company's remaining shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for no less than HK$26 ($5.15) per share. L'Occitane shares tanked 25% on the latest news and were fetching HK$20.80 at midday AEST. L'Occitane has more than 3,000 outlets in 90 countries, and has a market cap of USD3.9 billion ($6.0 billion) following the share price slip.

The context: It was reported last month that Geiger was planning to relist L'Occitane on a European exchange as early as next year, following a similar move by Prada, which has been seeking a dual listing in Italy to complement its Hong Kong listing. As of May, Geiger's holding company owned 72.5% of L'Occitane.