Latest news with #JohnLyttle
Times
11 hours ago
- Business
- Times
Wall Street mogul O'Connor heads for exit at Cerberus
Deirdre O'Connor, possibly the most senior Irish woman in global private equity, is heading to pastures new. O'Connor was the chief financial officer of Cerberus, the giant investment group with more than $65 billion in assets under management, but I hear that she left the New York-headquartered firm last week. The Cork financier was a serious Wall Street heavyweight, having done time with Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs before becoming the head bean counter at BlackRock's alternative investments division. She joined up with Cerberus almost two years ago. She has been replaced as finance chief by the long-serving Cerberus staffer Andrew Leitten, according to those in the know. Cerberus, which was a big buyer of Irish debt during the crash, has been undergoing strategic and leadership changes following the appointment of its co-founder Steve Feinberg as US deputy defence secretary in the Trump administration. O'Connor is unlikely to be sitting on her hands for long. The Irish takeover of online fashion retail continues. At the front end, John Lyttle ran Boohoo before moving to Marks & Spencer as head of clothing. At the back end, the top engineer Sean Mullaney helped to build Zalando's super-slick online retail engine before heading off to try to transform start-up finance and banking with his new Seapoint venture. His footprints remain at Zalando, where Trinity College Dublin alumna Alice Delahunt has just joined the advisory board of the €8 billion-valued German online retailer. Delahunt helped drag Burberry and Ralph Lauren into the 21st century as both brands' digital chief. She's now behind the fashion-tech start-up Syky, which not only incubates up-and-coming fashion brands but has made a decentralised marketplace for designers to show and shift their creations. Zalando may have got itself a good bargain. I hear the AerCap treasurer Brian Canniffe, who is one of Aengus Kelly's key lieutenants at the $21 billion-valued aviation leasing company, was one of the early backers of Ian Nolan and Alex King's legal technology group, Brightflag, which was sold last month. The Dutch firm Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory agreed to buy the Dublin company for €425 million in an all-cash deal to give it access to mid-sized legal departments in the US and European markets. Brightflag uses artificial intelligence to help firms such as Lufthansa and Dropbox manage their legal bills and cut down on paperwork. I'm told that Canniffe and other investors, including the former Twitter Ireland boss Stephen McIntyre, the former Davy Capital Markets chief John Lydon and the ex-Trintech chief executive Paul Byrne, all came in as part of the €8.5 million series A funding round in April 2019. That valued the company at less than one tenth of the €425 million sale. Top result. Things have been heating up at Dublin's most expensive apartment block. The Lansdowne Place complex is the subject of a row, with resident Aideen O'Byrne suing the developers over the heating system after spending nearly €6.5 million to buy a penthouse off the plans. Needless to say, they are defending the action. A seventh-floor penthouse sold quietly last year for about €5.8 million, sparking all kinds of rumours over the identity of the new resident, who will join the likes of the former Penneys executive Breege O'Donoghue, the ex-PayPal chief Louise Phelan, Green Property's Stephen Vernon, Pallas Foods' Dan Geary and the alarm magnate Frank Hart. I wonder if the cinema tycoon Paul Anderson might be interested in moving there now, given that his Dublin 4 pad is on the market for about €20 million. Anderson and his family own the Omniplex cinema chain. The sale of Hailey Bieber's beauty and cosmetics brand, Rhode, to Elf for up to €880 million has blown a few minds. It's a three-year-old start-up brand that sells direct to consumers and is powered by viral social media content. If you think that sounds like the craziest ever splurge, then you're not alone and probably not addicted to TikTok. However, for all of the beautifully shaped eyebrow-raising over the valuation of Rhode, it doesn't disguise the fact that direct-to-consumer lifestyle brands amped up by personality-led social media posts are taking market share from aggregators. • How Hailey Bieber built Rhode's $1bn beauty empire in 3 years I see that Cork's Clodagh McKenna is launching her own lifestyle brand, called Honey By Clodagh. McKenna, a well-seasoned celebrity chef, has developed an enormous profile in the UK market from her slots on ITV's This Morning show. She is now selling everything from cooking utensils and stripey napkins to candles and cushion covers. McKenna is also married to the Hon Harry Herbert, a godson of the late Queen Elizabeth, and the couple had their nuptials at Harry's birth home, Highclere Castle, the location for Downton Abbey. That should help shift some glassware and crockery — it's all about the story. The direct-to-consumer lifestyle market is growing at a rate of knots and is forecast to be worth more than $10 billion in the next five years. McKenna would be mad not to cash in on her following. The $96 million takeover of the Dermot Smurfit Jr-founded GAN gaming technology company by the Japanese firm Sega Sammy completed last week. The Nasdaq-listed firm, which provides sports betting and online gaming software, was bought for a decent premium on its pre-offer trading price. Smurfit Jr — son of the late great Dermot Sr, nephew of Sir Michael of Monaco and brother of the film star Victoria — exited his company when the buyout was announced about 18 months ago. He moved to Los Angeles and set up Paydirt Games, where I believe some heavy hitters have invested through a seed round late last year. This includes JAC Cap's John Cassarini, a former star Lehman Brothers trader, who also joined the board of the fledgling gaming studio. I'm told that testing of its first product, a multiplayer game, has gone very well indeed. The plan is to disrupt the gaming market, which is traditionally aimed at teenagers and younger players. Smurfit is looking at something a little different. All will be revealed. Patrick and Paul Broughan's Broughan Engineering is the largest maker of specialist trailers in Ireland. The Carlow company exports farming and agricultural trailers all around the world. It produces everything from 24ft livestock trailers to grain trailers to dumper trailers. Despite global economic headwinds, it's a lucrative business and the boys had more than €5.5 million in cash in the bank last year with retained earnings of almost €10 million. Patrick is taking a bit out of the company, and I believe that Broughan Engineering is lending him €1.7 million to buy a farm. Better than sitting in the bank earning no interest.
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Dove, Wellbeing Brands Drive Unilever Growth in 2024
LONDON — Unilever is expecting a 'soft' start to the new year after reporting a 1.9 percent uptick in turnover to 60.8 billion euros in 2024. The consumer giant, parent of brands including Dove, Vaseline and Paula's Choice, reported underlying sales growth of 4.2 percent in the 12-month period, and a 10.8 percent drop in net profit to 6.4 billion euros. More from WWD Emporio Armani Stages an Immersive Experience at Selfridges Corner Shop Sweden's Drm-Ldn Kick-starts Global Expansion With London Opening Former Boohoo Chief John Lyttle Takes Top Clothing Role at Marks & Spencer The company said the decline in profit for the year was due to a loss on disposals and higher restructuring costs as a result of accelerating its productivity program. Unilever has been looking to slim down, sharpen its focus and streamline its operating structure. Hein Schumacher, chief executive officer, said the new strategy was beginning to bear fruit. 'We committed to doing fewer things, better and with greater impact. We executed the plan at pace and made progress in 2024,' Schumacher said. 'Fewer, bigger innovations helped to deliver volume growth consistently above 2 percent in each quarter. All business groups delivered positive volume growth for the year,' he added. Schumacher said Unilver's 'power brands,' which account for more than 75 percent of turnover, led the growth, with particularly strong performances from Dove, Comfort, Vaseline and Liquid I.V. He added that the separation of Unilever's ice cream division, announced last year, was on track. On Thursday, Unilever named Jean-Francois van Boxmeer as chair designate for the demerged ice cream business. Van Boxmeer is currently chair of Vodafone Group and non-executive director of Heineken Holding, having served as CEO of Heineken for 15 years. Ice cream will be separated by way of a demerger, and the business will be listed in Amsterdam, London and New York, the same three exchanges on which Unilever shares are currently traded. The demerger is set to take place by the end of the year. Looking ahead, Schumacher said that market growth, which slowed throughout 2024, is expected to remain soft in the first half of 2025. 'The steps we have taken in 2024, further reinvestment in our brands and strong innovation pipelines leave us better positioned to deliver on our ambitions in the years ahead,' he said. Underlying sales growth for 2025 is set to land within Unilever's multiyear range of 3 to 5 percent. The company said it expects the market — and its own growth — to improve during the year as prices increase, reflecting higher commodity costs in 2025. The company said it's expecting a more balanced split between volume and price. In 2024, Unilever's Beauty and Wellbeing division outperformed the company as a whole, with underlying sales up 6.5 percent in the 12 months, driven mainly by volume growth. Unilever said growth in beauty and well-being reflected the 'ongoing premiumization' of its core hair care and skin care portfolio and the continued strength of its prestige beauty and well-being portfolio, which together accounted for around 30 percent of turnover in the Beauty and Wellbeing division. The company said it saw 'strong performances' from power brands including Sunsilk, Dove, Vaseline, Ponds, Liquid I.V. and Nutrafol. Dove, which represents around 40 percent of turnover in the personal care division, grew in the high-single digits with the successful launch of a new range of whole-body deodorants and a serum shower collection, using active face care ingredients in body wash formats. Prestige beauty grew by a midsingle digit reflecting a slowdown in the U.S. beauty market. Hourglass and Tatcha grew in the double digits, while other brands, including Paula's Choice, delivered low-single-digit growth. Unilever said that one of its newest brands, K18, a premium biotech hair care brand, grew in the double digits and will be included in underlying sales growth from this month. Wellbeing sales saw strong double-digit growth led by Liquid I.V., Nutrafol and Olly. Unilever said Liquid I.V. saw the continued success of its sugar-free variant and ongoing international expansion, entering seven new markets during 2024. Nutrafol extended into skin care with a daily supplement designed to address acne, while Olly saw strong growth in China led by its female health supplements. Best of WWD Harvey Nichols Sees Sales Dip, Losses Widen in Year Marred by Closures Nike Logs $1.3 Billion Profit, But Supply Chain Issues Persist Zegna Shares Start Trading on New York Stock Exchange
