L’Oréal says willing to buy back Nestlé stake | Progresiv
L’Oréal has publicly said it is open to buying out Nestlé’s stake in the cosmetics giant, saying it has “what it takes” to conclude such a deal – if the possibility arises. 
The Swiss giant has long held a 23% stake in L’Oréal, which is currently worth around 22.6 billion euros, but has come under recent pressure from activist investor Daniel Loeb’s Third Point hedge fund to sell the stake as part of a wider overhaul.
When Jean-Paul Agon, CEO of L’Oréal, was asked if his group would consider buying the stake if Nestlé ever decided to sell it, he replied: “Yes, of course.” Agon, who was speaking to analysts after L’Oréal’s recent results were announced, noted: “We have all the resources for that. We are cash rich . . . we have our Sanofi stake, we are absolutely financially very solid.”
L’Oréal’s 9% stake in Sanofi is currently worth around 7.6 billion euros, and it had around 1.9 billion euros in cash on its balance sheet as of end-December 2017. (www.kamcity.com)
