The Hut Group applies finishing touches to £275m Cult Beauty takeover

The London-listed company’s acquisition of Cult Beauty, co-founded by Alexia Inge, will be announced to the stock market on Wednesday morning.

The London-listed owner of The Hut Group, the health and beauty e-commerce giant, will this week unveil the latest instalment in a blizzard of industry dealmaking: a £275m takeover of Cult Beauty.

Sky News has learnt that THG will announce the acquisition of Cult on Wednesday morning.

It will come two months after THG, which floated last autumn, struck a deal with the Japanese technology group SoftBank that provided it with a further $1bn warchest for strategic acquisitions.

Adding Cult to its portfolio, which also includes brands such as Lookfantastic, will cement THG's status as leader in the prestige beauty category.

Cult, which was founded in 2007 by Alexia Inge and Jessica Deluca, sells about 300 independent brands, such as Charlotte Tilbury, Living Proof and Molton Brown.

From: Sky News