A beauty company worth over 5 billion officially changes ownership.

On June 1st, Japanese beauty and care company FineToday Holdings Co., Ltd. announced that it has completed the equity transfer procedures. European private equity firm CVC Capital Partners (hereinafter referred to as CVC) has fully exited, and Bain Capital has become the new owner. The acquisition that started in February this year has finally come to an end.

The specific transaction amount of this deal has not been disclosed to the public. According to previous reports from Japanese media, the valuation of the entire acquisition is approximately 200 billion yen (equivalent to about 8.869 billion RMB).

Since its spin - off from Shiseido in 2021 and independent operation, after five years of capital cultivation, FineToday has officially entered the era of Bain Capital management.

Bain Capital Takes Over, FineToday Gets a New Owner

This deal started in February this year. At that time, multiple parties announced simultaneously that Bain Capital signed an equity transfer agreement with Oriental Beauty Holding (HK) Limited, a company jointly established by funds managed by CVC, to acquire all the equity of FineToday. In less than four months, the two parties officially completed the delivery and transfer of ownership, and FineToday welcomed its "new master".

When it comes to FineToday, the public may be a little unfamiliar with it. However, its personal care brands such as Finol, Silkperfection, Kuyura, Satinique, Sekkisei, and Aqua Label have been deeply involved in the Chinese market for many years and have a high market penetration rate and user loyalty.

Screenshot from FineToday's official website

Looking back at the origin of the company's development, FineToday originated from the mass personal care business segment of the Shiseido Group. In 2021, in order to focus on high - end beauty, Shiseido decided to divest its personal care assets, and CVC Capital stepped in to take over this business. At that time, to ensure a smooth business transition, the two parties jointly established Fine Today Shiseido Co., Ltd. (later renamed FineToday Holdings), and the original Shiseido mass personal care brands were unified and transferred to the new entity for independent operation.

In June 2024, Shiseido cleared all its remaining equity, and FineToday completely separated from the Shiseido system and was wholly - owned by CVC. In the same year, FineToday first announced its listing plan on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and officially launched the preparation work for the IPO.

Although affected by the fluctuations in the global consumption environment and changes in the capital market, FineToday temporarily shelved its IPO plan, but the company's fundamentals have always maintained a steady upward trend. According to Qingyan's observation, even though the overall sales volume fluctuated slightly in the short term during the epidemic, brand building, new product R & D, and the layout of domestic and overseas channels were still steadily implemented according to the established plan.

For example, in November 2023, FineToday launched +tmr (Plus Tomorrow), the group's first self - incubated original hair - care brand. The brand is positioned with the concept of "good hair comes from protein", filling the gap in the group's original brands. So far, the brand matrix under FineToday has expanded to 12, covering hair - care, facial cleansing, body care, and men's care sectors.

Product information picture of +tmr

In terms of channels, in March 2025, FineToday launched its self - operated online mall, Fine Today Online Shop, to open up the direct - sales channel of the brand to reach end - consumers and adapt to diversified consumption and shopping habits.

The stable business strategy has brought remarkable financial performance. In 2023, FineToday's net profit doubled year - on - year. According to the Global Beauty Top 100 list released by Women's Wear Daily (WWD), in 2025, FineToday's annual sales reached 759.9 million US dollars (equivalent to about 5.14 billion RMB), a year - on - year increase of 5.9%. It ranked 53rd among global beauty companies. Compared with FineToday's previous annual growth guidance of 5.5%, the actual business performance met the internal target.

In the deal in February this year, Atsushi Akachi, Managing Partner and Co - Head of Japan at CVC, also said: "Since FineToday started independent operation in 2021, it has achieved an annual sales and profit growth of about 10% even in a complex environment such as the COVID - 19 pandemic."

The stable fundamentals have become the core support for CVC to exit at an opportune time and for Bain Capital to make a large - scale full - acquisition.

Planning to Go Public Again?

On June 1st, with the completion of the equity transfer, FineToday officially entered the era of Bain Capital. The most concerning thing in the market about this change of ownership is whether its IPO plan can be restarted.

It is understood that FineToday's listing was once within reach. On October 3rd, 2025, the Tokyo Stock Exchange approved FineToday's listing application. However, just over ten days later, on October 20th, FineToday announced the suspension of the listing plan again on the grounds of "considering the recent trends in the stock market".

However, Atsushi Akachi previously predicted: "Although the company postponed the IPO plan due to macro - geopolitical factors, we believe that with the support of Bain Capital, FineToday is expected to go public within the next few years and further grow into an enterprise based in Japan and radiating across Asia."

Qingyan also noticed that along with the completion of the equity transfer, FineToday also completed the change of the corporate governance system: from a company with an audit and supervision committee to a company with a corporate audit committee, and completed the adjustment of the internal management structure. Several new directors and supervisors were appointed. For example, Naofumi Nishi, Partner and Co - Head of Japanese Private Equity at Bain Capital, was appointed as a director.

It is understood that the establishment of an independent corporate audit committee is one of the important directions of corporate governance reform in Japan, which helps to enhance the supervision function and transparency of the board of directors. For enterprises intending to promote listing, a sound governance structure is an indispensable prerequisite.

In addition to the possibility of restarting the listing plan in the future, globalization is another core strategic goal for FineToday after it was incorporated into Bain Capital.

Bain Capital has rich experience in business support and successful cases in the global retail and consumer goods fields. Its investment portfolio includes well - known brands such as York Holdings, KIRINDO, MASH Holdings, Snow Peak, and Canada Goose.

Naofumi Nishi previously said: "In the future, Bain Capital will rely on our experience and professional capabilities accumulated in the retail and consumer fields in Japan and the world to help FineToday expand its business and accelerate its development in global markets such as Japan, China, and Southeast Asia."

Tetsuro Komori, Chairman and CEO of FineToday, said, "With the support of Bain Capital, we will receive professional empowerment in terms of long - and medium - term enterprise value enhancement and implement a dual - track business strategy. Relying on this cooperation, the company will continue to create stable economic and social value for all cooperation parties."

From the external environment, the window period for global expansion is opening. In recent years, the rapid growth of the Southeast Asian market and the continuous increase in the acceptance of Asian beauty products in the European and North American markets have provided potential incremental space for FineToday.

Aiming for a Target of 200 Billion Yen in 2030

In fact, according to the medium - term business plan for 2027, FineToday has clearly defined the strategic direction of global layout. The goal is to achieve an annual revenue of over 132 billion yen (about 5.6 billion RMB) in 2027, with an annual revenue growth rate of no less than 7%. At the same time, the revenue ratio of the global market is defined: the Japanese domestic market, China and Hong Kong, and the Asia - Pacific market* each account for 30% of the revenue, and emerging markets (North America, the Middle East, etc.) contribute 10%.

FineToday's medium - term business plan for 2027. Screenshot from FineToday's official website

Based on the medium - term plan, FineToday plans to achieve a consolidated revenue of 200 billion yen (equivalent to about 8.47 billion RMB) and an EBITDA of 34 billion yen (equivalent to about 1.44 billion RMB) in the fiscal year 2030, and strive for the position of a leading personal care manufacturing enterprise in Asia.

Currently, the Chinese market, as FineToday's largest overseas market, has become the core driving force for the group to achieve performance growth. According to the data disclosed by FineToday at the Chinese agent meeting in March this year, in 2025, FineToday's performance in China outperformed the market with a high - single - digit growth rate. The sales growth of key brands and the achievement rate of new products on the Douyin platform both exceeded 100%, and there was double - digit growth in offline channels such as Fat Donglai and Walmart.

At that time, Atsushi Seto, CEO of FineToday China, also revealed the plan for 2026. The three strategic priorities of "strengthening brand value, strengthening new product R & D, and strengthening agent cooperation" remain unchanged, but the content and depth will be comprehensively upgraded.

Relying on the accumulation of Japanese brands in the Chinese market for more than 20 years, a mature product system, and long - term user cultivation, FineToday's multi - brand matrix has accumulated a solid market foundation in the domestic and Asian mass hair - care and personal - care sectors. This is also the core confidence for it to maintain stable growth in the face of industry fluctuations.

However, it cannot be ignored that the competition in the domestic mass personal - care sector has entered a white - hot stage. In recent years, domestic domestic hair - care and personal - care brands have risen strongly, continuously diverting young consumer groups through live - streaming, social marketing, and innovation in niche sectors, significantly squeezing the living space of imported brands.

According to the data from Qingyan Intelligence, in the online TOP50 brand lists of niche sectors such as facial cleansing, personal care, and hair - care, domestic brands such as Hexi, Off&Relax, and Shipai Si basically dominate, and it is difficult to find FineToday's main brands.

Nowadays, online channels have become the core mainstream channels for domestic young consumers to purchase beauty and hair - care products. FineToday's pace of online layout is relatively slow, which may restrict its further incremental breakthrough in the Chinese market.

Meanwhile, in recent years, Japanese cosmetics have generally cooled down in the domestic market. Against this macro - background, for FineToday, how to make up for the short - board in online channels and speed up localization innovation to reshape the growth advantage in the fierce Chinese market may become the key issue for its future development.

Note*: Asia - Pacific refers to South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Singapore.

Except for the charts, the foreign exchange in the text has been converted into RMB at today's exchange rate.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Qingyan", author: Rendong. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.